Chalk is a soft, porous, and white sedimentary rock. It is a form of limestone but is softer than limestone. The rock is not well cemented and is often brittle and powdery. You can easily break a small piece of chalk with your hand.
The chalk is mainly made up of calcium carbonate, mostly derived from the calcium carbonate remains of marine algae (coccoliths) or single-celled marine organisms (foraminifera).
Chalk is usually white but often processed to add different colors.
How to Identify Chalk?
Chalk looks similar to diatomite and gypsum rock. It is usually identified by its hardness, fossil content, and acid reaction.
It is differentiated from gypsum if examined with a hand lens because it reveals the fossil content. An acid test with 5% HCL identifies the rock and separates it from gypsum and diatomite.
Chalk produces effervescence when you pour a drop of acid on it. The capillary action takes the acid drop into the rock’s pores. It is recommended not to hold the rock in your hand when testing it with HCL.
Diatomite and gypsum don’t react like this when exposed to dilute HCL.
Rock Composition
Chalk is a soft form of limestone. The rock is mostly made up of small fragments of the calcite shell or skeletons of single-celled marine organisms like foraminifera or coccolithophores. These fragments make up 10% to 25% of a typical rock.
Chalk is almost pure calcite CaCO3. Other minerals like quartz and clay may also be present with the rock’s 2-4% weight. Chalk is a highly porous rock with 35-47% porosity.
Chalk Formation
Chalk is produced from fine-grained marine sediment, known as ooze. When single-celled organisms living at the bottom of the ocean die, they settle at the bottom. This will produce chalk if the remains consist of calcium carbonate. This process can also form diatomite if the organic debris comes from diatoms and radiolarians.
Most of the chalk was formed between 99 and 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period. These deposits comprised extensive continental shelves with depths between 100 and 600 meters.
Where is Chalk Found?
Chalk is a common rock, and it is mined below and above the earth’s surface.
Its most notable reserve is known as the Chalk Group. It is a European stratigraphic unit deposited during the end of the Cretaceous Period. It comprises the famous White Cliffs of Dover in England and Cap Blanc Nez in northern France. The Champagne region in France has huge chalk deposits. The highest chalk cliffs in the world are found in Jasmund National Park in Germany and at MønsKlint in Denmark.
Chalk deposits are also located in Austin Chalk, Texas, Selma Group (within Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee), and Niobrara Formations of the North American interior. Chalk reserves are also located in Khoman Formation, Egypt, and Miria Formation, Australia.
Chalk Uses
Chalk is used as writing material on rough blackboards. The chalk crumbles and leaves particles when pushed against a blackboard, allowing you to write. It is also easily erasable with a cloth or duster. Writable chalk is commonly known as blackboard chalk, and it is produced from mineral chalk, calcium carbonate, or mineral gypsum. Gypsum-based chalk is the cheapest, and carbonate-based is expensive and marketed as dustless chalk.
Colored chalk, pastel chalk, and sidewalk chalk are used to draw on sidewalks and boundaries for games, streets, and driveways. Chalk is used in glazing putty as well.
Chalk is used as a base in various applications. Chalk is used in agricultural applications to raise soil’s pH.
Some chalk beds also form important petroleum reserves in North America’s North Sea and Gulf Coast.
