Talk:Rügen Chalk

Schlämmkreide

This seems to translate to "sludge chalk", but that doesn't sound like a very good translation. Precipitated chalk, perhaps? --Kent G. Budge (talk) 20:02, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

Chalk mud is probably the phrase you are looking for. Hemiauchenia (talk) 23:44, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

One machine translator suggested "whitewashed chalk", which suggests "washed chalk" is another plausible translation. What do you think? --Kent G. Budge (talk) 00:26, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

I don't understand the context, is Schlämmkreide natural or processed chalk? Hemiauchenia (talk) 00:39, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

The context makes it a processed chalk. It is mentioned in contrast with Rohekreide, which translates as raw chalk. --Kent G. Budge (talk) 01:08, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

From my reading, Schlämm best approximates to slurry or suspension, which implies that it is powdered chalk that is originally suspended in water. Hemiauchenia (talk) 17:32, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

I wonder if I'm making this harder than it needs to be. Every English-language source on chalk mining or manufacturing that I can Google up refers to the end product of the refining process as simply chalk. --Kent G. Budge (talk) 18:53, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

Schlämmkreide seems to be originally relatively pure natural chalk that people have further purified and ground into a fine powder - translatable into English as "prepared chalk" (medical and cosmetic uses) or "whiting" (industrial uses e.g. paint). Prepared chalk (Meriam Webster English definition) does not have a Wikipedia article but whiting has a definition at the Whiting disambiguation page - perhaps a wikilink to it would be helpful to readers. Or one could play safe by avoiding translation altogether by using a phase such as "a processed chalk known in German as Schlämmkreide". GeoWriter (talk) 11:29, 3 May 2021 (UTC)

Sources

Decent recent German Language source The Rügen Chalk - Living Environment and depositional conditions of a pelagic Upper Cretaceous sedimentation area. Hemiauchenia (talk) 20:04, 30 April 2021 (UTC)