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
Calcium carbonate below sea level. Calcium carbonate can preserve fossils through permineralization. Most of the vertebrate fossils of the Two Medicine Formation—a geologic formation known for its duck-billed dinosaur eggs—are preserved by CaCO permineralization. This type of preservation conserves high levels of detail, even down to the microscopic level. However, it also leaves specimens vulnerable to weathering when exposed to the surface. Trilobite populations were once thought to have composed the majority of aquatic life during the Cambrian, due to the fact that their calcium carbonate-rich shells were more easily preserved than those of other species, which had purely chitinous shells. The