1. by-nc: Leo Reynolds Calcite Photo courtesy Robert Sawin, KGS

2. Coral and other organisms use calcite to construct their hard parts. Eugene Weber © California Academy of Sciences E. Eugenia Patten, © CA Academy of Sciences

3. A colorful seashell, coneshell, in a few of the beautiful colors of calcite and aragonite. NOAA/DoC Brain coral and sea fans use calcite.

4. NOAA/DoC These calcite pieces, the hard-part remains of organisms, may wash up on a shore and get picked up by a human, or they may fall to the bottom of the ocean where they will form the limestone of the future.

5. EPA NASA GFC Jerry Prezioso, NOAA/DoC These are microscopic plankton and coccoliths, all calcite-bodied creatures. After they die, their remains falls to the ocean floor, or are dissolved, and eventually help create limestone.

6. (credit: ) © Marli Miller (Earth Science World Image Bank) Travertine deposits near a hot spring. Standing here at Yellowstone in Wyoming, you could almost watch the travertine (calcite) precipitate out of the hot water as it evaporates. Calcite is easily dissolved in water. This dissolution creates caves and makes water hard. When that water evaporates, the calcite minerals come out of the water to form a solid such as speleothems in caves, travertine near springs, or hard water scum in your bathtub.

7. Calcite speleothems: USGS Travertine (calcite) draperies in Mitchell Caverns. Wind Cave/NPS helictite bush aragonite frostwork calcite popcorn

8. LaCrosse/USFWS This river in northeast Iowa is edged with limestone cliffs, formed in an ocean hundreds of millions of years ago. USGS This homeowner in Florida has a sinkhole in her yard due to the dissolution of the limestone bedrock below. The White Cliffs of Dover, in southeast England. The cliffs are chalk, which is made of microscopic calcitic plankton. public domain

9. Chalkboard chalk originally was made from pure calcite “chalk”, but now is mixed with other minerals. by-nc-nd: Monika Hoinkis by-nc-nd: Ryan Ozawa by-nd: Matt McGee by-nc: Lindley Ashline

10. Michelangelo's Pieta is made of marble. Marble is a popular sculpture material made of metamorphosed carbonate. Marble exposed to rain can disintegrate, either by the acidic water dissolving the calcite ions, or by physical freeze-thaw weathering. public domain

11. http://www.windows.ucar.edu limestone = a carbonate sedimentary rock made of the mineral calcite marble = any metamorphic rock that is made up of recrystallized minerals of calcite and/or dolomite Wait: Calcite? Limestone? Carbonate? Marble? calcite = mineral calcium carbonate chemical formula: CaCO 3 by-nc-sa: mtchm carbonate = generic name for any sedimentary rock that is made of deposited carbonate (CO 3 ) minerals, like limestone or dolomite rock

12. USGS The Washington monument is made of several different types of marble. Marble is carbonate that was subjected to heat or pressure, or metamorphosed, while buried deep in the earth. After blocks are cut out of the rock and into the desired shape, they are shipped from the quarries to the construction site by railroad. Carbonates are very popular building stones. Photo courtesy Grace Muilenburg, KGS

13. © 2006 VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Here, 150 tons of limestone dust are added to Laurel Bed Lake to improve pH. Calcite calms our acidic stomachs. by-nc-sa: Tom Magliery by-nc: Roadsidepictures from the January 1939 Popular Science by-nc-sa: Todd Ehlers

14. by-sa: hobvias sudoneighm Calcium is an important dietary mineral, but the mineral carbonate forms are not absorbed by the human body. Make sure your dietary supplements are from a food (not a rock) source! by-nc-nd: Keith Davenport

15. by-nc-sa: Lastaii by-nc-sa: Alan Penner Water with dissolved carbonate in it, usually groundwater from carbonate aquifers, is known as hard water. Hard water can be improved by “water softening” treatment. Hard water causes “scaling”. by-nc: Nofolete / Dane Larsen by-nc: Dane Larsen by-nc-sa: spike55151

16. Carbonates, like calcite, are added to animal feed. by-nc-nd: Maury McCown by-sa: Peter Huys by-sa: redjar by-nc: Jane Cockman

17. Carbonate is used as a flux for metallurgy. A flux is a material that melts easily and can be used to remove impurities from metal ores, or that makes the slag produced by metal ore smelting more fluid. by-sa: Southern_Comfort by-nc-sa: BBColin

18. Carbonates condition soils for home gardening. by-nc-sa: Sarah Serendipity by: Editor B by-nc-sa: edgeplot by-nc-nd: ~Living the American Dream~

19. by-nc-sa: ewanr by-sa: Chrischang Carbonate minerals are important to plants. Calcium, from calcite, is utilized by cells in building their cell walls. Powdered fertilizer is spread on farm fields. Carbon dioxide from the air, and not carbonate from rocks, are the main building blocks of plant life. Live plants underwater also need fertilizer.

20. by: Kumon Carbonate is manufactured into a powdered lime, which is combined with water to form plaster, mortar, and cement. Plaster is used on walls and in art Mortar holds bricks together. Cement and rocks make concrete. GNU by: Alan Levine by-nc-nd: Oliver Elser & Andreas Muhs CVC / Architect of the Capitol

21. OSHA Cascades Job Corps Center/USDoL CDC Carbonates are in concrete as the cement and as rocks. In these pictures concrete masons put the smooth finish on a concrete floor. by-sa: Beige Alert

22. Many buildings and sculptures are made of carbonate, both stone and concrete. We use a great deal of calcite and dolomite in building the hard parts of our society. Concrete Carbonate stone by: Jonny2005 by-nc: jabenaki by-nc-sa: nznomad by-nc: Andrea Kirkby

23. by-nc: Adam Henning FHA/US DOT Caltran Think of all the roads you have ever been on: carbonates make them all possible. MN DOT

24. by-nc: Leo Reynolds Calcite Photo courtesy Robert Sawin, KGS

25. media rights Many of the photos in this presentation were obtained through Flickr and Wikipedia.FlickrWikipedia Funded by FIPSE and by the University of Minnesota. Compiled for Dr. Kent Kirkby, Department of Geology and Geophysics, by Kate Rosok, 2007. Each displayed image retains its original media rights. For educational purposes only; not to be used commercially.FIPSEUniversity of MinnesotaDr. Kent Kirkby Department of Geology and Geophysics public domain (none) © Copyright. All rights reserved by-nc-sa by by-nd by-sa by-nc-nd Creative Commons Licenses GNUGNU GNU Free Documentation LicenseGNU Free Documentation License Our notation description