When chalk
quarries are not your usual habitat (our local quarries, which I am much more
used to, are honey-coloured Jurassic limestones or grey clays from the same
Period) a chalk quarry floor is startlingly snowy-white and strangely
beautiful, holding sharp impressions of quarry activity
or shoes. Walking across it, it feels like you’re in the
Antarctic, especially on a January day when the wind feels like it has come
straight off the South Pole like it did this day. It did not help that there
was one thing I didn't know at the outset: I was coming down with an
awful cold at the time. No wonder it felt even colder than it actually
was! In spite of that, it's the colour I'll never forget from that day.
The chalk where we were is food quality, by the way, and yes, you did read that
correctly. Have you ever had bread or cereal with added calcium?
This is where the calcium comes from. They grind the chalk to a fine
powder, roast it, and sell it to the bakers/manufacturers.
Genuinely. Have you taken any white pills today? The active
ingredients are mixed with chalk. On top of this, it’s a great antacid, So, salt is not the only mineral to come from
the ground!
I know a fellow geologist who tells me that he keeps a lump of chalk on his
bedside locker for when he gets indigestion. I know him well enough to
believe him.
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