Sunday, October 30, 2016

Limestone regardless of their inland location is formed by ocean waters.

Most limestones form in shallow, calm, warm marine waters. That type of environment is where organisms capable of forming calcium carbonate shells and skeletons can easily extract the needed ingredients from ocean water. When these animals die, their shell and skeletal debris accumulate as a sediment that might be lithified into limestone. Their waste products can also contribute to the sediment mass. Limestones formed from this type of sediment are biological sedimentary rocks. Their biological origin is often revealed in the rock by the presence of fossils.

One of the most famous formations of limestone are the White Cliffs of Dover in Great Britain. The rock is of very fine stone that is chalk, but, it is limestone. This is largest collapse of the cliffs known. 


Collapse: (click here) Thousands of tons of chalk fell from the white cliffs of Dover in an area known as Crab Bay. Here a woman surveys the damage