What is Limestone?

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral calcite. It most commonly forms in clear, warm, shallow marine waters. It is usually an organic sedimentary rock that forms from the accumulation of shell, coral, algal, and fecal debris. It can also be a chemical sedimentary rock formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate from lake or ocean water.

Varieties of Limestone

There are many different names used for limestone. These names are based upon how the rock formed, its appearance or its composition, and other factors. Here are some of the more commonly used varieties.

Chalk:

A soft limestone with a very fine texture that is usually white or light gray in color. It is formed mainly from the calcareous shell remains of microscopic marine organisms such as foraminifers, or the calcareous remains from numerous types of marine algae.

Fossiliferous Limestone:

A limestone that contains obvious and abundant fossils. These are normally shell and skeletal fossils of the organisms that produced the limestone.

Oolitic Limestone:

A limestone composed mainly of calcium carbonate “oolites,” small spheres formed by the concentric precipitation of calcium carbonate on a sand grain or shell fragment.

Tufa limestone:

A limestone produced by precipitation of calcium-laden waters at a hot spring, lake shore, or other location.

Coquina Limestone:

A poorly-cemented limestone that is composed mainly of broken shell debris. It often forms on beaches where wave action segregates shell fragments of similar size.

Travertine limestone:

A limestone that forms by evaporative precipitation, often in a cave, to produce formations such as stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone.

Lithographic Limestone:

A dense limestone with a very fine and very uniform grain size that occurs in thin beds which separate easily to form a very smooth surface. In the late 1700s, a printing process (lithography) was developed to reproduce images by drawing them on the stone with an oil-based ink and then using that stone to press multiple copies of the image.

Lime stone is produced from company’s quarries in Samaloot in Upper Egypt, the production capacity is around 100000 tons/Year

Sinai international

Chemical Analysis

CaO
Cr203
Fe203
CaCO3

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