Stalactite a cave it will drip down. When the solution comes into contact with air the chemical reaction that created it is reversed and particles of calcium carbonate are deposited. The reversed reaction is: An average growth rate is a year. The quickest growing stalactites are those formed by a constant supply of slow dripping water rich in calcium carbonate (CaCO) and carbon dioxide (CO), which can grow at per year. The drip rate must be slow enough to allow the CO to degas from the solution into the cave atmosphere, resulting in deposition of CaCO on the stalactite. Too fast
Calcium carbonate Currently calcium carbonate is used to neutralize acidic conditions in both soil and water. Since the 1970s, such "liming" has been practiced on a large scale in Sweden to mitigate acidification and several thousand lakes and streams are limed repeatedly. Calcium carbonate is also used in flue gas desulfurisation applications eliminating harmful SO and NO emissions from coal and other fossil fuels burnt in large fossil fuel power stations. Calcination of limestone using charcoal fires to produce quicklime has been practiced since antiquity by cultures all over the world. The temperature at which limestone yields calcium oxide is usually given