Definition of "carbonates" [carbonates]

• Plural form of carbonate. (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "About 3.6 billion years ago, blobs of minerals called carbonates were forming inside tiny cracks in the rock, spreading like hard-water deposits in pipes."
• "Next to it come the so-called carbonates: first, sodium carbonate, which is already familiar to us as washing soda; and second, sodium bicarbonate, which is an ingredient of baking powders."
• "The vast pool is contained in the so-called carbonates, which are limestone rocks that contain crude, but which have so far resisted efforts at commercial production."