Limestone

Environment
► Limestone

► A hard or soft, organic, sedimentary

rock formed from the remains of tiny
shells and calcium carbonate skeletons
of polyps deposited (corals) on the sea
bed and which have been compressed.
►
► Jamaica, Belize, Bahamas,
Cayman and Barbados are made
up of limestone. N.B Chalk,
coral and marl are examples.
►
Characteristics of Limestone

► Structure
► These rocks are coarse in texture, hard and
soft, are white, yellow or grey in colour
► Contains pores, fissures or joints (vertical
cracks)
► They are in layers along bedding planes
(horizontal cracks)
► Chalk is softer but yellow limestone is solid.
► Permeability
► They contain pores, fissures or joints
(vertical) and horizontal cracks which
makes the limestone porus, that is, they
allow water to pass through.
► These joints within the limestone becomes
enlarged when rainwater dissolves the
limestone (carbonation), the rocks
therefore become more permeable.
► Chemical Composition
► Limestone contains the mineral calcium
carbonate.
► This when mixed with rainwater (H²0 +
CO²) forms calcium bicarbonate which is
soluble and as such is easily dissolved or
washed from the limestone.
► N.B Soil formed is usually thin due to very
little rock material left after weathering.
Processes operating in the Limestone
Environment
► Carbonation
► In this process rainwater mixes with
carbon dioxide to produce carbonic
acid. This solution reacts with the
calcium carbonate in the limestone
and produces calcium bicarbonate
which is soluble or easily dissolved.
► This results in calcium bicarbonate being
removed via the joints where the solution
enters. This enlarge the joints and remove
the bicarbonate in water droplets.
► Solution
► This is similar to carbonation except that
other gases along with carbon dioxide mix
with the rain in the air and on the ground.
► Evaporation and Deposition
► Where calcium carbonate drips from the
joints in solution the water evaporates or is
removed leaving behind calcite deposits of
calcium which are deposited or left behind
 Features formed within the Limestone Environment

Surface Features
► Limestone Pavement
► Grykes and Clints
► Swallow holes/Sinkholes
► Dolines
► Gorges and Dry Valleys
► Mogotes
 Underground features

► Caves
► Stalactites,
► Stalagmites
► Pillar
► Underground Streams
Limestone Pavement

► This is a large exposed surface area of

flat, bare limestone rock . E.g. coastal
areas of St. Lucy in Barbados and in
Antigua.
► It is often dissected or broken apart by
vertical narrow grooves or depression or
fissures called grykes
► Along with irregular blocks called clints
►
 Clints and Grykes

► Limestone is soluble in water and so

drainage or the flow of carbonic acid
along joints and cracks in the
limestone pavement cause
carbonation.
► The dissolving of the calcium
bicarbonate within exposed joints
cause them to widen or to be enlarged
leaving deep gashes, fissures or cracks
called grykes and between them are
slabs of flat topped dissected blocks
that are called "clints".
►
 Swallow hole /Sinkhole

► An exposed and enlarged limestone joint

down which a surface river/water
'disappears'. It therefore resembles a
cylindrical hole connecting the surface of a
cave to the inside. Sink holes are relatively
small, whilst swallow holes are larger.
► Both have been formed either by
the constant carbonation and
erosion on the joints in the
limestone. Where there is the
collapse of a cave below or where
two or more sinkholes meet a
swallow hole is formed.
Cockpit Karst

► This is a limestone landscape which

consists of small rounded/conical hills
of the same height separated by
depressions. They resemble an egg
tray. E.g. The Cockpit Country,
Trelawny; Dry Harbour Mt and Crofts
Mt in Jamaica.
► It is said to be formed when carbonation
occurs along the joints of limestone which
form a rectangular pattern. Carbonation
thus widens the joints at the intersection
causing depressions to develop leaving
behind the surrounding areas as hills. They
are also said to be formed where high water
tables cause erosion or where the roof of
underground caverns collapse.
Caverns and Caves

► Caves are hollowed out passages or

tunnels underground with an
opening to the outside/surface.
► Caverns are passages or tunnels
which are enclosed underground.
► Caverns are formed when
rainwater flows along the cracks
or joints and bedding planes of
limestone . The flow along these
small spaces cause increased
pressure which results in an
erosive force which develops and
enlarge passages or tunnels to
form caverns.
► The rainwater combined with carbon
dioxide also forms a weak acid called
carbonic acid. Carbonation occurs as
calcium carbonate becomes soluble
calcium bicarbonate which is dissolved
from the limestone joints further
enlarging them.
► This process slowly creates enlarged
cracks and joints thereby forming
caverns.
► However underground streams
overtime flows throughout the
caverns eroding and dissolving
the limestone such that they
hollow out an opening on the
surface via which the stream
emerges as a resurgence/spring.
► E.g. the One Eye River in
Balaclava, St. Elizabeth: Jamaica.
Caves include Green Grotto Caves,
Runaway Bay: St. Ann, the Cockpit
Country of Trelawny and Two Sister
Caves, Hellshire Hills, Portmore;
St. Catherine in Jamaica and
Harrison Caves in Barbados.
► Stalactite
►
►These are slender or needle
shaped, icicle mass of calcite
which hang from the ceiling or roof
of a cave.
►.
►
► When rainwater mixed with
carbon dioxide seep through
the joints of limestone they
dissolve calcium bicarbonate
which drips from the cave
roof.
► .
► Each drop contains dissolved
calcium that has been acquired
from flowing through the
cracks and joints of the
bedrock.
►
► As this droplet suspends from the
ceiling some of the contained
carbon dioxide escapes the droplet
and the water evaporates leaving
calcite deposits behind, multiple
drops slowly form an icicle-like
feature called a stalactite on the
cave roof.
► Stalagmite
►
► Stalagmites are slender or needle shaped,
icicle mass of calcite which extend from the
floor or ground of a cave.
► As the droplets containing some dissolved
calcium bicarbonate fall from the
dripstones in the ceiling (stalactites) and
hits the floor of the cave the droplet
scatters
► This process allows for the loss of
carbon dioxide and water through
evaporation and for calcite to be
deposited on the floor. After
multiple drops have landed in the
same area calcite builds up to form
stalagmites.
►
►

► Pillars
► Pillars are columns which are formed
when a stalactite and a stalagmite meet.
► They are formed when the dripstones
containing calcium deposits calcite and
build up stalactites on the ceiling and
correspondingly falls to the floor leaving
calcite deposits which form stalagmites.
► Overtime multiple droplets build
up calcite on the ceiling and floor
resulting in the stalactite and
stalagmite meeting to form a pillar
►
► Underground Streams

► These are streams which flow

underground within a cave.
► Water disappears from the surface or
flows through the limestone via swallow
and sink holes and carve out caverns,
until they reach the impermeable layer of
rock below the limestone layer.
►
► .Once at this point the stream
flows under the limestone until it
re-emerges. This is called
resurgence.
►