Accumulation of carbonate rocks on Earth through time

A geological unidirectional process which runs throughout the Earth’s history is quantitively described: accumulation of carbonate rocks. Over the Phanerozoic, carbonate rocks accumulate in a nearly linear way, resulting in a quantity defined as one Phanerozoic accumulation unit. On the other end of this one-directional process, hydrothermal processes in mid-ocean ridges deliver calcium from oceanic crust into seawater. First estimated values of annual calcium fluxes (inputs) match very good with the average accumulations (output). Like radioactive decay and entropy increases in isolated systems, the accumulation of carbonate rocks is a unidirectional process, which presents an example that materials in geological processes are not recycled. The accumulation process is a new concept which is to be taken into consideration when observing and investigating other phenomena and processes on the Planet. This new concept can give satisfactory explanations to the “excess calcium paradox” problem, where calcium masses in sedimentation are proportionally much more than those of other major elements.