Chalk

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  • chalk
definition
  • A soft, pure, earthy, fine-textured, usually white to light gray or buff limestone of marine origin, consisting almost wholly (90-99%) of calcite, formed mainly by shallow-water accumulation of calcareous tests of floating microorganisms (chiefly foraminifers) and of comminuted remains of calcareous algae (such as cocoliths and rhabdoliths), set in a structureless matrix of very finely crystalline calcite. The rock is porous, somewhat friable, and only slightly coherent. It may include the remains of bottom-dwelling forms (e.g. ammonites, echinoderms, and pelecypods), and nodules of chert and pyrite. The best known and most widespread chalks are of Cretaceous age, such as those exposed in cliffs on both sides of the English Channel.
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Abstract from DBPedia
    Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk is common throughout Western Europe, where deposits underlie parts of France, and steep cliffs are often seen where they meet the sea in places such as the Dover cliffs on the Kent coast of the English Channel. Chalk is mined for use in industry, such as for quicklime, bricks and builder's putty, and in agriculture, for raising pH in soils with high acidity. It is also used for "blackboard chalk" for writing and drawing on various types of surfaces, although these can also be manufactured from other carbonate-based minerals, or gypsum.

    チョーク (英語: chalk) は、未固結の石灰岩のこと。イギリスのドーバー海峡周辺で崖をつくる厚い地層のことで、円石藻の化石(炭酸カルシウムのココリス)から成る。 日本語では白亜(はくあ、白堊とも)という。日本では地層が堆積した年代から、白亜紀の語源となったほか、黒板に用いるチョーク(白墨)の語源にもなっている。

    (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Chalk)