6 ms·
Limestone is generally made of dead corals and marine animals, this batch just included a slightly wider variety of species than average.
by creshal 3y ago
Limestone is generally made of dead corals and marine animals, this batch just included a slightly wider variety of species than average.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y agoThis makes it especially fun to climb on, there are pretty little shell indentations and such to appreciate on your way up.
- 13of40 3y agoThe magic ingredient in concrete is cement and the magic ingredient in cement is limestone, so our cities are literally built out of bones. Sleep tight.
- outworlder 3y agoInteresting. Cities are built on death and suffering, literally and figuratively.
- dwaltrip 3y agoMuch (most?) of the entire biosphere of earth comes from billions of years of life forms killing and eating other life forms. The universe is a rough place. Beautiful in many ways, but quite gnarly.
- dotancohen 3y ago> The universe is a rough place. Beautiful in many ways, but quite gnarly. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid.
- vkou 3y agoUnless you're a primary producer (photosynthesize your own food, or something of the sort), all life is built on death and suffering. We eat what we kill.
- kragen 3y agoexcept, hooray for parasites and scavengers!
- abeppu 3y ago... in fairness, there's not really any particular reason to believe that the organisms which contributed to limestone suffered any more than their peers who didn't. And insofar as all the elements that are components of life exist in finite quantities which get recycled on earth, all life is built on death.
- kragen 3y agothis is a mistake i made for many years, so hopefully i can save someone else: bones and teeth are calcium phosphate, while corals and seashells and eggshells and limestone are calcium carbonate. that's why you can't dissolve teeth or chicken bones in vinegar. cement is made by calcining calcium carbonate (with silicates), not calcium phosphate mineral calcium phosphate (apatite) is broken down for fertilizer with sulfuric acid. it is not used for cement to my knowledge the phosphate and carbonate of calcium are not especially similar, not any more than the hydroxide and sulfate of sodium, or the sulfide and hydroxide of iron in summary, your cities are not literally built out of bones
- 13of40 3y agoValid point, but let's tease that apart: We're talking about seashells and coral, not the sort of bones you'd find in a mammal, but still the skeletal structures of animals. So maybe "skeletons" not "bones". Same difference.
- kragen 3y agotrue, your cities are literally built out of skeletons
- liuesnvica 2y ago[flagged]
- mr_toad 3y ago> so our cities are literally built out of bones. Sleep tight. They moved the cemetery but they left the bodies!
- dclowd9901 3y agoYep. I have a few seashells poking out of my bathroom tile. It’s not (ugly) travertine though.
- NovemberWhiskey 3y agoUh, sure, but that doesn't look like "an identifiable part of a human head" that's going to be catching your eye when you're using the bathroom.