<p>Reading your comments I see that you're asking:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>so could we find for example 1km high limestone layers on earth ?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The answer is definitely yes. Here's an example of a stratrigraphic geological section from Israel:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ImGfs.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ImGfs.png" alt="Gvirtzman"></a>
<sup>source: Chronostratigraphic table and subsidence curves of southern Israel, Gvirtzman 2004, <em>Israel Journal of Earth Sciences</em>, 53</sup>
You can see that in the north of the country there is an almost entirely continuous section of "platformal carbonates" which is just a fancy name for limestones. That's 5 kilometres of limestone. And I'm pretty sure that's not the deepest - that's only the one I personally know.</p>

<p>That's a sedimentary basin where you can drill and still find fossil-bearing limestones deep down. This gets even better if you start adding tectonics to this. Plate movements can do funny stuff to rocks, including burying them really deep. If you take limestones and do that to them, you actually transform them into marble. Basically marble (proper) is limestone buried deep and cooked. And by deep I mean really deep. Some marbles from the Alps are known to come from more than 100 kilometres deep! Note that I'm not saying it's limestone all the way down, but there are chucks of marble (formerly limestone) down there.</p>

<p>If you want to be really extreme, there is an <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v358/n6389/abs/358745a0.html" rel="noreferrer">article</a> where the authors say:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>...carbonate sediments were subducted into the upper mantle...</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Upper mantle is 200-300 kilometres deep. And you know what? That's only the ones we know of. Who knows, there might be some limestones that were subducted all the way down to the core-mantle boundary, almost 3000 kilometres deep.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-10T12:42:58.190Z
I think the best example of a carbonate platform is the Grand Bahama Banks. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahama_Banks
stali
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-10T12:48:11.857Z
That's a great modern active example indeed. The thickness (4.5 km) is just below what I showed in my answer.
Gimelist
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-10T12:37:27.800Z
2015-08-10T12:37:27.800Z
Gimelist
<p>What is the maximum thickness of limestone layers on earth?</p>

<p>(Limestone or any other biochemical sedimentary rocks, for example chalk or coral reefs.) </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-09T20:02:33.817Z
I'm a bit confused of the question. Can you specify what you are aiming for?
user2821
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-09T20:25:07.050Z
Limestone is not necessarily biochemical. Early limestone deposits were formed from the reaction of carbonic acid (H20 + CO2 = H2CO3) with lime and had no biological origin.
BillDOe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-09T21:27:17.570Z
@BillOer ok, and this process still exists today but in a little proportion compared to biogenic limestone.
reuns
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-09T21:34:54.443Z
@Tbb : there are for example the 500 meters high chalk cliffs at Dover UK. I could not find on the web what was the maximum height of such CaCO3 layers on earth. limestone and CaCO3 in general is more often under the ocean floor , so could we find for example 1km high limestone layers on earth ? if no, are we sure there are no such huge layers ? logically, the height of limestone layers on planets with oceans would increase from nearly 0 at the apparition of life,  to some very high heights after some organisms with CaCO3 died and fell on the ocean floor for billion of years.
reuns
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-09T21:54:43.853Z
I'm not sure about the exact maximum depth, but this can go for several kilometres deep of almost pure limestone.
Gimelist
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-09T22:19:17.610Z
As @BillOer points out, limestone doesn't need to be of biological origin. If you are interested in total storage of carbon, the porosity of the chalk would be an important factor and siliciclastic component can also be high in some cases.
user2821
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-09T22:24:22.010Z
It's hart to think about the very thickest unit. Arbuckle Group maybe? Does dolomite count?
user2821
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-22T20:10:56.343Z
@BillDOe How early are we talking?  1GYa?  2?
Michael
<plate-tectonics><sedimentology><stratigraphy><biogeochemistry><limestone>
where are the thickest limestone layers on earth ? (CaCO3)
reuns
# where are the thickest limestone layers on earth ? (CaCO3)

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-08-09)

What is the maximum thickness of limestone layers on earth?

(Limestone or any other biochemical sedimentary rocks, for example chalk or coral reefs.)

**Tags:** plate-tectonics, sedimentology, stratigraphy, biogeochemistry, limestone

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm a bit confused of the question. Can you specify what you are aiming for?  
> **username_2**: Limestone is not necessarily biochemical. Early limestone deposits were formed from the reaction of carbonic acid (H20 + CO2 = H2CO3) with lime and had no biological origin.  
> **username_0**: @BillOer ok, and this process still exists today but in a little proportion compared to biogenic limestone.  
> **username_0**: @Tbb : there are for example the 500 meters high chalk cliffs at Dover UK. I could not find on the web what was the maximum height of such CaCO3 layers on earth. limestone and CaCO3 in general is more often under the ocean floor , so could we find for example 1km high limestone layers on earth ? if no, are we sure there are no such huge layers ? logically, the height of limestone layers on planets with oceans would increase from nearly 0 at the apparition of life,  to some very high heights after some organisms with CaCO3 died and fell on the ocean floor for billion of years.  
> **username_3**: I'm not sure about the exact maximum depth, but this can go for several kilometres deep of almost pure limestone.  
> **username_1**: As @BillOer points out, limestone doesn't need to be of biological origin. If you are interested in total storage of carbon, the porosity of the chalk would be an important factor and siliciclastic component can also be high in some cases.  
> **username_1**: It's hart to think about the very thickest unit. Arbuckle Group maybe? Does dolomite count?  
> **username_4**: @username_2 How early are we talking?  1GYa?  2?  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2015-08-10. Score: 6

Reading your comments I see that you're asking:

> so could we find for example 1km high limestone layers on earth ?

The answer is definitely yes. Here's an example of a stratrigraphic geological section from Israel:

[![Gvirtzman](https://i.sstatic.net/ImGfs.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ImGfs.png)
source: Chronostratigraphic table and subsidence curves of southern Israel, Gvirtzman 2004, *Israel Journal of Earth Sciences*, 53
You can see that in the north of the country there is an almost entirely continuous section of "platformal carbonates" which is just a fancy name for limestones. That's 5 kilometres of limestone. And I'm pretty sure that's not the deepest - that's only the one I personally know.

That's a sedimentary basin where you can drill and still find fossil-bearing limestones deep down. This gets even better if you start adding tectonics to this. Plate movements can do funny stuff to rocks, including burying them really deep. If you take limestones and do that to them, you actually transform them into marble. Basically marble (proper) is limestone buried deep and cooked. And by deep I mean really deep. Some marbles from the Alps are known to come from more than 100 kilometres deep! Note that I'm not saying it's limestone all the way down, but there are chucks of marble (formerly limestone) down there.

If you want to be really extreme, there is an [article](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v358/n6389/abs/358745a0.html) where the authors say:

> ...carbonate sediments were subducted into the upper mantle...

Upper mantle is 200-300 kilometres deep. And you know what? That's only the ones we know of. Who knows, there might be some limestones that were subducted all the way down to the core-mantle boundary, almost 3000 kilometres deep.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: I think the best example of a carbonate platform is the Grand Bahama Banks. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahama_Banks  
> **username_3**: That's a great modern active example indeed. The thickness (4.5 km) is just below what I showed in my answer.  

---

