Oolite

Oolite is a sedimentary rock composed chiefly of ooids: small, rounded grains formed by concentric mineral layers around a nucleus. The grains are commonly cemented by calcite.

Ooid: A rounded sedimentary grain built from concentric mineral layers around a nucleus. Ooids are the defining grains that make up oolite.
Oolitic shoal: A submerged bank of carbonate sand dominated by ooids. Oolitic shoals are common settings for accumulating the grains that form oolite.
Great Salt Lake: A saline lake in Utah, western United States, that produces carbonate ooids. Its modern ooid sands provide a well-studied example of active oolite formation.
Oolitic limestone: A limestone whose grains are predominantly ooids. This is the common carbonate-rock form of oolite.
Ooid formation: The growth of concentric mineral coatings around grains in agitated, mineral-rich water. Layered coatings give oolite its characteristic rounded grains.
Wave action: The movement and breaking of waves that stir and transport water and sediment. Wave agitation can keep ooids moving as their mineral coatings grow.
Joulters Cays: A group of carbonate shoals and islands in the Bahamas known for ooid sand. These shoals expose a modern setting where ooids accumulate in abundance.
Building stone: Naturally occurring rock selected and quarried for construction. Oolitic limestone has been quarried for walls, facades, and historic buildings.
Calcite: A calcium carbonate mineral with the chemical formula CaCO₃. Calcite commonly cements ooids into solid oolite.
Hydrodynamics: The study of moving fluids and the forces acting within them. Fluid motion helps determine whether ooids roll, grow, or settle.

Linked from 4 pages