All types of limestone, being composed of calcium carbonate, are soluble in CO2-rich rainwater and slightly soluble in surface seawater (Fairbridge, 1948; Revelle and Emery, 1957). Limestone coasts are not very common in high latitudes but are extremely frequent in the tropics. Two limestone types are predominant: (i) coral reef limestones, hermatypic corals being very widespread between latitudes 30°N and 30°S; sea level was several meters higher than at present, during both the mid-Holocene and the Pleistocene interglacials, so that fossil coral reef coasts are very numerous; (ii) eolian calcarenites (“eolianites”), derived from coastal dunes that are usually calcareous; during the Quaternary period of important climate changes and sea level oscillations, such dunes developed in enormous belts along the more arid coastlines, notably latitudes 15-45°N and S.
The limestone littoral zone of Algeria, showing the wave-cut bench platform with Corallines (after L. G. Seurat, 1935;...
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1968). Limestone coastal weathering . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_227
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