Calcite orCaCO3 is composed of lime and carbon dioxide-where did the CO2 come from when calcite was made?

Question

Calcite formations are huge and since its ~45% CO2 where did all that CO2 reside before the formation of calcite?

Calcite is ~55% carbon dioxide.

Answer 1

Actually, lime is CaCO3 also. Calcite is a crystalline form of lime, and both are composed of calcium.

Early in the Earth's history, CO2 was contained mostly in the atmosphere. When the fauna evolved hard body parts, they fixed the CO2 dissolved in the oceans into calcium carbonate shells, which then ended up deposited as the thick limestone beds now found throughout the world. In the mid Paleozoic, the evolution of land plants continued this process, fixing the carbon in the biomass as well as into sediments such as coal and black shales.

Basically, the processes of life removed the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locked it into the rock cycle.

Answer 2

A better question is how much will it cool when the Gorians have had their way with us. Your sites are bogus! their either environmentalist sites, BBC, or they say right in them that these scientists aren't sure. That large discrepancies exist in their findings. You probably should try to find a new major. You are not objective enough to be a scientist, and you let your emotions cloud your judgment. Even if we quit altogether, don't use any more petroleum products, the glaciers aren't coming back, the permafrost is not going to refreeze. The Methane is going to be released at an alarming rate until the job is done. The Sun is causing the warming and that pisses you off!

Answer 3

It comes from disolved CO2 in water, with evaporation or organic activity driving the CO2 into the calcite structure. This CO2 is mainly formed by photoplankton in the ocean.