Many of the oceanic islets are composed of coral limestone, which in this way becomes phosphatized; others are igneous, consisting of trachyte or basalt, and these rocks are also phosphatized on their surfaces but are not so valuable, inasmuch as the presence of iron or alumina in any quantity renders them unsuited for the preppration of artificial manures.
The leached guanos and phosphatized rocks, which are grouped with them for commercial purposes, have been obtained in great quantities in many islands of the Pacific Ocean (such as Baker, Howland, Jarvis and McKean Islands) between long.
To these leached guanos and phosphatized limestones the name sombrerite has been given.
The phosphate beds contain Eocene fossils derived from the underlying strata and many fragments of Pleistocene vertebrata such as mastodon, elephant, stag, horse, pig, &c. The phosphate occurs as lumps varying greatly in size, scattered through a sand or clay; they often contain phosphatized Eocene fossils (Mollusca, &c.).
Phosphatic nodules and concretions, with phosphatized fossils and their casts, occur at various geological horizons in Great Britain.
