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
Geology of the Grand Canyon area Limestone averages 505 million years old and is made of gray, thin-bedded limestone that was deposited farther offshore from calcium carbonate precipitates (see 3c in figure 1). The western part of the canyon has a much thicker sequence of Muav than the eastern part. The Muav is a cliff-former, thick. These three formations were laid down over a period of 30 million years from early-to-middle Cambrian time. Trilobites followed by brachiopods are the most commonly reported fossils in this group but well-preserved fossils are relatively rare. We know that the shoreline was transgressing (advancing onto land) because finer grade material