Limestone Formation

a lot of small sea animals make shells of CaCO3 and as they die a slow steady rain covers the sea floor. Over millions of years these make the layers we know as white cliffs etc.

Google this.

One problem, of CO2 is too high, the shells dissolve.

Ocean can not absorb co2 as fast as we need, beside that too much plackton may reduce solar light reaching inside the ocean thus this may have not desired side effects. I have a pond at home with plants and fish, the idea is to see the nature and fishes but green algae makes water very dark at the end you can not seee nothing at all! Regards

The great lakes were invaded by a foreign species of shellfish, called a Zebra Mussel.

The bottom of the great lakes are now reported to be covered with these mussels.

The water of the lakes has cleared up dramatically, as these billions of little filters

inhale dirty water and exhale filtered water.

They present a problem for the power companies, clogging inlet and outlet pipes, but

I wonder how much CO2 they have sequestured out of the atmosphere?

Cause of global warming to die out placktons. I do not want to image earth when to die out placktons. You know placktons are absorb fifty per cent CO2 from our world. When placktons was down the global warming will get gear up. Ohh my GOD help us...

Hi!

This may or may not be germane to the discussion, but many years ago there were articles in some eco-oriented magazines describing a technique developed in Australia whereby a framework of conducting material is submerged in seawater, and connected to a small electrical current. This had the effect of building up calcareous deposits on the framework. Concrete-like structural components were the result, said to be as strong as, but cheaper than, ordinary concrete. Making cement is very energy consuming. This was offered as a replacement, but appears to have been an idea before its time. Instead of steel, carbon fibre might work as well, and be stronger. I envision the complete fabrication of the buoy-type of solar energy generators being entirely accomplished by such a means. It apparently does not take all that much time, and the amount of current required was said to be miniscule, such that a wind generator was sufficient to produce what was needed. So, using this process one would remove carbon from the environment - the calcium carbonate - and you would not be expending CO2 in the process as would making a similar item out of cement, and you could be making ocean wave powered electricity generators that would only need to be pumped out and fitted up to go into action. Probably still too visionary.
Ford Stone

I don´t know if is a good idea or not but I think that your point o f view is very imaginative and different, so maybe you are right in some degree or maybe your aproach to solve this problem deserves a closer look.

Very interesting concept - from where does the calcium carbonate come, to form these calcareous deposits?

Is it in solution in the sea water?

With reference to the millions of small sea creatures developing calcareous shells and then dying and drifting down to the sea bed, once again I ask, from where does the calcareous material come from?

Who originally gets the calcium to mate with the carbon dioxide to form calcium carbonate?

From where does come such enormous quantities of calcium in the first place?

Calcium is easily dissolved by water. During eons earth surface has been washed by water and erosion, these sediments ends at lakes and ocean floor, nature figures out the rest of the equation.

Carbon is used by plants and algaes for growing, due to the fotosyntesis process, releasing oxigen as a byproduct. Then you have carbon, calcium, oxigen and light in quantities large enough for filling this little place with plenty life forms, including us.

Looks simple??? regards

Luis

Calcium is in the same pperiodic table as Sodium and Potassium - they are metals - they cannot dissolve in water, but react with water, in the case of Sodium and Potassium, quite explosively, to form the hydroxide, which can then react with the carbon dioxide in solution - weak carbonic acid - to produce the carbonate.

So far very simple, but where and how does the calcium get produced in the thousands of tons in the first place to react with the water to form the calcium hydroxide which reacts with the carbonic acid etc etc to go into very, very weak solution in the sea water for all those billions of billions of tiny creatures to build their houses so they can die, drift to the seabed and so eventually accumulate 1000ft or more of limestone for us to make cement many years later?

You are right, I just try to point out that the process has taken million of years and that, some how, water has to do a lot with transporting these minerals into the oceans and other water bodies during this long time. Up to this point I have try to do an educated guess, but seems that we need some one with the expertise to clarify this issue.

At the end , I think, we should try to change our behavior in order to lessen the consecuences fo having disturbed the world climate pattern, which in turn is affecting the entire world population. Just check at the NASA site and you will find that the Artic is loosing its ice sheet by thowsands of kilometers2 a year and that ocean level is raising at a fast rate.

We are affecting every single life form in this blue marble with our daily activities so we should do something to fix it. THAT IS FOR WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TRAINED AS ENGINEERS. REGARDS

I agree completely - did you read the article about what would happen to the Earth if ALL human beings were removed simultaneously, all together at the one time?

to make cement you must drive out the water of crystallization of the ingredients and grind it into a fine powder = portland cement.

When water is added the dried crystalline phases redydrate and form the cement we know.

concrete is a method of adding strong stones, graded to size down to grit to reduce the amount of portland cement powder used.

One of the ingredients can be the carbonate shells.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_cement