1. Creating and Destroying Limestone
Dr. Stacey Verardo
Physical Geology, Historical Geology,
Invertebrate Paleontology, Paleoclimatology
Dr. Julia Nord
Mineralogy, Soil Science
Girl Scouts
FOCUS middle school camp. (Females Of Color Underrepresented in Science).

2. How to create limestone (calcite)
Put about 2.0 cm of limewater in a test tube
About 1 inch
This is our “ocean”
Get a straw and blow into the lime water
Stop when something happens…
What happened?

3. Why is it going white? What do you “blow “ out? Why?

4. Why is it going white?
Calcium and Carbonate Lets watch it for a while. Can you see the solid sinking? Precipitation. Gas + liquid = solid

5. Dissolving calcite Next step
Keep blowing into the limewater till something else happens.
What happens?

6. Why is it going clear?
Lets watch it for a while. It goes colorless!! This is what happens when too much CO2 gets into the ocean

7. Ocean Acidification https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxPwbhFeZSw
North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

8. Discussion of experiment How do we use it?

9. Levels of exploration Middle school / scouting High school / scouting
Introductory physical geology
Introductory historical geology
Mineralogy
Climatology

10. All these are calcite Shells are CaCO3 calcite Egg shells are calcite
Stalactites and stalagmites are calcite
galaxybackground.com

11. Middle school / scouting Calcite / limestone is CaCO3
Ca – Calcium C O H
What do you breathe in?
What do you breathe out?
Where does the C come from?

12. Experiments with limestone and Ocean acidification
Limestone is 10% of all sedimentary rocks
formed of calcite
CaCO3
Calcium carbonate
Mainly formed in the oceans

13. Too much carbon dioxide?
Excess CO2
Makes carbonic acid
H2CO3

14. It goes colorless! Is the calcite dissolving? If so, why?
Did you know you can dissolve a chicken egg shell in vinegar?
What is happening to the amount of CO2
What happened in the movie?
How can we stop this happening?

15. High school / introductory geology

16. What is limewater? Lime water is calcium oxide dissolved in water.
CaO and H2O
Also called “lime or “quicklime”

17. What is limewater? Lime water is calcium oxide dissolved in water.
CaO and H2O
These react to form Calcium hydroxide.
Ca(OH)2
Also called “lime or “quicklime”

18. Carbonic Acid breaks apart: Bicarbonate is formed and H+ increases

19. Historical Geology

20. Limestone – White Cliffs of Dover limestone (chalk) from the past

21. Limestone today – The Bahamas warm and wet environments.
Image NASA MODIS

22. Limestone in VA where is limestone forming today?

23. Limestone in VA

24. Caves

25. Invertebrate Paleontology Paleoclimatology
Increase in CO2 in the atmosphere leads to the increase in CO2 in the oceans.
This leads to Ocean Acidification and the dissolution of marine materials composed of CaCO2.

26. Invertebrate Paleontology Paleoclimatology
Periods of dissolution have occurred naturally within the the geologic record, from variations in ocean chemistry.
Dissolution is now occurring at a much faster rate due to anthropogenic factors.

27. Mineralogy calcite Uniaxial mineral lab – calcite and quartz
Evolution of minerals over time