Calcium carbonate latter is especially evident in day-to-day life of people who have hard water. Water in aquifers underground can be exposed to levels of CO much higher than atmospheric. As such water percolates through calcium carbonate rock, the CaCO dissolves according to the second trend. When that same water then emerges from the tap, in time it comes into equilibrium with CO levels in the air by outgassing its excess CO. The calcium carbonate becomes less soluble as a result and the excess precipitates as lime scale. This same process is responsible for the formation of stalactites and stalagmites in limestone
Carbonate mineralogy, the term "carbonate" can refer both to carbonate minerals and carbonate rock (which is made of chiefly carbonate minerals), and both are dominated by the carbonate ion, . Carbonate minerals are extremely varied and ubiquitous in chemically precipitated sedimentary rock. The most common are calcite or calcium carbonate, CaCO, the chief constituent of limestone (as well as the main component of mollusc shells and coral skeletons); dolomite, a calcium-magnesium carbonate CaMg(CO); and siderite, or iron(II) carbonate, FeCO, an important iron ore. Sodium carbonate ("soda" or "natron") and potassium carbonate ("potash") have been used since antiquity for cleaning and preservation,