English: Chemical structure of calcium carbonate

Chemical structure of calcium carbonate

Continued from Part1

Inorganic Limestone:

eNotes: Limestone tells us that Limestone is made of the mineral Calcite (Calcium Carbonate). It can be made of Carbonate mud, fossil fragments, pellets or something called ooids (more about them next time).  Carbonate mud is made of tiny crystals that form directly from seawater and from the remains of some marine algae (think chalk).

I found some microscope pictures of the different types of Limestone Here. Just scroll down a little to see the slides.

So, where did this mud come from?

A moss, assimilating its carbon dioxide from m...

A moss, assimilating its carbon dioxide from mineral spring water (ex. Karstwater, saturated with calcium carbonate).

I got really excited when I saw what Kentucky University has to say about limestone formation (in plain English for you): Calcium Carbonate, the stuff that limestone is made of, can stay floating in water that is carbonated (think Soda Pop). There are two ways to make the water “go flat” in order to get the calcium carbonate to collect into limestone. 1. Plants can remove carbon dioxide (they need it to make food). 2. Or, you can heat, evaporate, or shake it. Once the carbon dioxide is removed, the calcium carbonate sinks and settles to the bottom.

Just think of how much fizzy water you would have to have to provide the Calcium Carbonate for the giant algae blooms that formed earth’s chalk layers!

Where do you get bubbly water from? Ever heard of Seltzer Water? It’s named after a naturally carbonated spring in Germany.

Nabeghlavi mineral water bottle

Nabeghlavi mineral water bottle

Live Strong has that to say, “At certain rare places around the globe, mineral water rises from the earth naturally carbonated, forming warm pools or geysers. In the United States, these warm, nutrient-rich waters are common in Idaho and Oregon.”

The only way to get naturally carbonated water is out of the ground! Then, to get the materials for Limestone, you have to already have Calcium Carbonate in it without heating, stirring or evaporating first. That means, it has to happen quickly, like, within a day or two (how long does it take an open soda can to go flat?). This already rules out Uniformitarianism’s long, slow ages.

One of the first questions I asked myself when I was studying about shell-formed limestone is, where did the calcium carbonate come from in the first place? Even if Evolution were true, you still had to have enough of this stuff in the water for the first shells to use! This question was asked by Terry Hurlbut, a creation scientist, over at the Examiner.com. The page has a lot of ads and I DON’T recommend the slideshow, but what he has to say is right on the money. He also linked to the online book I had read by Dr. Walt Brown that talks about this a lot.

Geology.com Limestone: “Limestone is not found everywhere. It only occurs in areas underlain by sedimentary rocks.” This means that limestone is always on top of other soft rocks. To see where limestone is, check out this map. (I’ll cover cave formations soon!!)

There isn’t a good source of calcium carbonate from existing rocks on the earth’s surface.  The only rock not laid down by water that is made of this stuff comes from volcanos and is very rare.

English: Eruption of Strokkur close by. França...But the Bible has the answer for this puzzle. When the Flood began, it was much more than just rain that started filling the earth:

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:11

These underground fountains kept spewing out (fizzy, calcium carbonated!) water for 150 days.

And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.  And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; Genesis 7:24, 8:1,2 

From eNotes: “Limestones are particularly common sedimentary rocks, representing times in Earth history when globally warm conditions prevailed along with particularly high sea levels.” Yup, global warming was the way of the world until after the high sea levels of the Flood.

PS I found something really cool. A crystalized form of Calcite (the same stuff Limestone is made of), called Iceland Spar makes a great distance viewer. What would you bet some of the Ancient’s lenses were made of this stuff?


Cheri Fields

I'm a homeschooling blogger and book writer. The gift God has given me for His kingdom is to understand complex stuff (mostly) and share it with others using everyday words. It is a joy to share God's wonders with all kinds of people and especially the next generation!

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