History of limestone uses – timeline

Limestone is a sedimentary rock that has been utilised by humankind for thousands of years. This timeline traces some of the key points in the history of limestone, from Egyptian pyramid building to modern day industries.

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' BCE Lime mortar floor

A lime mortar floor dating back to BCE is discovered in Yiftah El in modern Israel. It was apparently manufactured from hydrated lime produced by strongly heating limestone and then slaking the product.

' BCE Limestone in pyramids and temples

Eocene limestone deposits flanking Egypt's River Nile are extensively quarried to supply building materials to construct pyramids and temples. The Great Pyramid of Giza consists of about 2.3 million limestone blocks averaging 1 cubic metre with a mass of 2'3 tonnes.

300 ' BCE Roman lime production technology

During the period 300 BCE to 200 CE, the Romans improve the technology of lime production and the making and use of lime mortar. Slaked lime mixed with volcanic ash found near Pozzouli at Naples Bay gave a type of cement that hardens both in air and under water.

10 CE ' Lime cement in Roman roads

Towards the end of the reign of Emperor Augustus, the Roman Empire is divided into over 100 provinces connected by a network of over 350 roads. Lime cement serves as a base core as well as filler holding the blocks of roading stone together.

476 CE ' Dark Ages ' diminished use of lime

This is the traditional date for the end of the Roman Empire and, in Europe, the beginning of the Dark Ages. The use of limestone and lime in major construction work appears to have diminished in European societies during this time of political and social upheaval.

' Great Tower of London whitened

During Henry III's reign, an order is given to have the Great Tower of London 'whitened both inside and out'. It is likely a slaked lime mixture (whitewash) was painted onto the stonework. Over time, calcium carbonate crystals form, giving a bright white appearance.

' ' Restoration of Great Wall of China

During the Ming Dynasty in China, restoration work is carried out on the Great Wall. This involves using huge amounts of lime mortar to cement the stonework in place.

16th century ' Lime as agricultural fertiliser

The use of lime as an agricultural fertiliser becomes increasingly popular. Food production levels are greatly improved by crop rotation, the spreading of manure (both human and animal) and liming.

' Hydraulic mortar

James Smeaton develops a type of cement that sets under water. By strongly heating a mixture of clay and limestone, the cement gives a more durable and stronger mortar. This new 'hydraulic' mortar is successfully used in construction of the third Eddystone lighthouse.

' Portland cement

Joseph Aspdin patents a blend of limestone, clay and other minerals heated to a high temperature (calcined) and ground to a fine powder. It is called Portland cement as the concrete made from it looks like a widely used building stone known as Portland stone.

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' Plasticised PVC

Waldo Semen discovers a way of converting the plastic known as PVC into a more usable form. By blending PVC with additives like calcium carbonate, produced by grinding limestone, he finds a way to plasticise it, greatly increasing its commercial use.

' Float glass method

Soda-lime glass is made by heating silica, sodium carbonate and lime to a very high temperature. Once formed, the molten glass can be made into plate glass by floating it on a bed of molten tin. Adrian Pilkington and Kenneth Bickerstaff invent this float glass method.

'90 ' Paper manufacture and pcc

The paper-making industry undergoes a major change from acid to alkaline production methods, which involves replacing filler additives such as kaolin clay with a form of calcium carbonate known as pcc. The raw material used for the production of pcc is limestone.

21st century ' million tonnes worldwide

Annual usage of limestone is million tonnes in building and construction, cement manufacture, agriculture and steel production. Many uses for calcium carbonate, directly sourced from limestone, have been found. Limestone is indeed a rock 'fizzing' with applications.

Limestones originate mainly through the lithification of loose carbonate sediments. Modern carbonate sediments are generated in a variety of environments: continental, marine, and transitional, but most are marine. The present-day Bahama banks is the best known modern carbonate setting. It is a broad submarine shelf covered by shallow, warm seawater. The Bahama shelf, or carbonate platform, mimics the setting that repeatedly prevailed across the stable cratonic areas of the major continental blocks during late Precambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic time and serves as a model for explaining the various limestone types that make up such ancient carbonate successions.

The edge of the shelf is marked by a topographically sharp escarpment flanked by coarse, angular limestone breccia. Submarine channels etched into the escarpment serve as waterways down which shallow-water carbonate sediment can be transported by turbidity currents capable of redistributing them as apronlike deposits on the oceanic abyssal plain. In many areas, the fringe of the Bahama banks is marked by wave-resistant reef rocks (sometimes classified as boundstone). Abrasion of these reefs by wave activity generates abundant skeletal debris. Variations in depth and current strength control the relative amounts of micrite and sparite, the prevalence of specific organisms and their productivity, and the likelihood of generating oöids, pellets, and carbonate rock fragments. Micrite and micritic allochemical sediments accumulate in deep-water, low-energy, protected areas like lagoons and tidal flats and on the leeward side of major islands. In high-energy, shallow-water locales such as beaches, coastal dunes, and tidal channels, currents winnow out any micrite, and these become the sites of sparry allochemical sediment deposition. Pinpointing the exact depositional setting for an ancient carbonate deposit requires detailed analysis of its texture, composition, sedimentary structures, geometry, fossil content, and stratigraphic relationships with modern carbonate depositional sites.

In addition to the ancient analogues of the modern carbonate deposits described above are freshwater limestones (marls) and limestone muds (or calcilutites) of deep-water abyssal plains. Freshwater limestones of limited extent represent a spectrum of small-scale settings developed within and along the margins of lacustrine basins. Deep-water abyssal plain limestones are quite restricted in volume and age in the geologic record for a number of reasons. First of all, abyssal plain sequences are less likely to be incorporated into the orogenic belts that develop as continental margins are compressed during ocean basin closure. Second, pelagic calcareous oozes are the obvious modern analogues of ancient abyssal plain calcilutites. These oozes are produced by aragonite-secreting plankton that float near the surface (such as foraminiferans and coccoliths), which upon their death leave their shells, or tests, to settle slowly to the ocean bottom and accumulate. The development of such deep-sea deposits is therefore obviously dependent on the existence of calcium-secreting planktonic organisms, and these did not evolve until Mesozoic time. Finally, calcareous ooze accumulation is severely restricted both by latitude (being largely confined to a band extending 30° to 40° north and south of the Equator) and abyssal plain depth (approximately 2,000 metres). Below a depth of about 4,500 metres, which is the carbonate compensation depth (CCD), the pressure and temperature of seawater produces a rate of dissolution in excess of the rate of pelagic test accumulation.

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