This massive carbon turnover could have critical implications for the life and chemistry of oceans. Although the fate of this particular biomass is unclear, some of it may be consumed by other marine life or fall to the ocean floor as sugars and lipids. The algal species that created this bloom is a coccolithophore, which forms a hard shell of chalky calcium carbonate. Over geological time scales, deposits of coccolithophores can also lead to the formation of structures like the white cliffs of Dover, according to marine microbiologist Willie Wilson of Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the U.K.