Are there any marine biologists out there?

[cichlidcichlid]

I have a quick question for anyone out there who would be able to answer this.

When you have coral that are made of calcium carbonate do they mine the dead part of coral reefs for the caco3 for making drywall?

Is there any processing involved or is it pure without any impurities?

 

[13enzene]

Majority of CaCO3 is mined and quarried form rocks. I doubt that dead coral is used though in any substantial quantity, the green freaks would blow a gasket.

FYI more pure CaCO3 used in drugs comes mainly from marble.

 

[SubRosa]

Depends on where you live. In the South Pacific coral reefs are often the only available limestone and are mined for building materials.

 

[Amphiprion]

Actually, there are sources of aragonitic-based CaCO3 (only the crystalline structure varies) and they are used, but they aren't nearly as common. Shells are also used. Otherwise, quarried limestone-based materials (such as marble above) are used. At least some of that marble used was once coral to begin with. Other naturally formed sources are calcite based, not aragonitic.

 

[cichlidcichlid]

Hmm, so basically if it was mined from rock it would still have come from the same place.

What is calcite?

 

[SubRosa]

Calcite is a form of limestone