Studies on Bacterial Precipitation of Carbonates in Sea Water

ABSTRACT Carbonates have been obtained in the form of films at the surface of aquarium cultures containing mud from the bay of Villefranche sur mer (Alpes maritimes, France) and sea water enriched with glucose to hasten the bacterial development. In order to establish the best conditions of formation of this film, I tried to vary the different factors susceptible of variation in nature, i.e. light, temperature, concentration of organic matter, and cultures have been made with sea water concentrated by evaporation (with an extent to salt marshes). Analyses of the sea water during the experiments have been made to try to determine the process of the formation of the carbonates. A brief mineralogical study of the films obtained has been made including microscopical analysis, chemical analysis for Ca and Mg, and some X-ray diagrams.