Ah, okay. That makes sense. You couldn't write on a chalkboard with a hunk of hard water scale from your showerhead like you can with a piece of chalk.
Given that coccoliths are individual
plates of calcium carbonate:
You can envision how the plates would slide off each other and leave behind that nice sheet of chalk that makes it such a good writing utensil.
ABE:
So yeah, given this:
Holy shit that a whole lotta Coccolithophores (single celled algae)!
Yeah, that's gonna take a while...
Edited by Catholic Scientist, : No reason given.