Quarries in Oolitic, Bedford, and Bloomington contributed the materials for such U.S. The town of Oolitic, Indiana, was founded for the trade in limestone and bears its name. This type of limestone is also found in Indiana in the United States. The physical and chemical properties of the Shoofly Oolite are the setting for a suite of rare plants, which the BLM protects through land use management and on-site interpretation. The Shoofly Oolite lies on public land west of Bruneau, Idaho managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The other sediments eroded away, while the more resistant oolite weathered into hummocks, small arches and other natural 'sculptures'. When the lake drained (2 to 4 million years ago), the oolite was left behind, along with siltstone, volcanic tuffs and alluvium from adjacent mountain slopes. Wave action in the lake washed sediments back and forth in the shallows on the southwestern shore, forming ooids and depositing them on steeper benches near the shore in 2- to 40-foot thicknesses.

10 million years ago, the Plain formed the bed of Lake Idaho. One of the world's largest freshwater lakebed oolites is the Shoofly Oolit, a section of the Glenns Ferry Formation on southwestern Idaho's Snake River Plain. The material consolidated and eroded during later exposure above the ocean surface. This limestone was formed by deposition when shallow seas covered the area between periods of glaciation. The Atlantic Coastal Ridge of southeastern Florida, the islands of the Lower Florida Keys, and much of the Everglades, are underlain by Miami Oolite. Carboniferous Hunts Bay Oolite lies under much of south Wales. A particular type, Bath Stone, gives the buildings of the World Heritage City of Bath their distinctive appearance. Some exemplar oolitic limestone was formed in England during the Jurassic period, and forms the Cotswold Hills, the Isle of Portland with its famous Portland Stone, and part of the North York Moors. Because of its extremely small grain size, oolitic sand has a lot of surface area, which promotes high bacterial growth. This unusually smooth sand promotes the growth of bacteria, which are important biofilters in home aquaria. Also known as 'oolitic' sand, the sugar-sized round grains of this sand pass easily through the gills of gobies and other sand-sifting organisms. Oolites are often used in the home aquarium industry because their small grain size (0.2 to 1.22 mm) is ideal for shallow static beds and bottom covering of up to 1' in depth. The size of the oolites reflect the time that they were exposed to the water before they were covered with later sediment. The oolites are commonly found in large current bedding structures that resemble sand dunes. Strong intertidal currents wash the 'seeds' around on the seabed, where they accumulate layers of chemically precipitated calcite from the supersaturated water. The mechanism of formation starts with a small fragment of sediment acting as a 'seed', such as a piece of a shell. They are usually formed in warm, supersaturated, shallow, highly agitated marine water intertidal environments, though some are formed in inland lakes. Oolitic hematite occurs at Red Mountain near Birmingham, Alabama, along with oolitic limestone. Dolomitic and chert ooids are most likely the result of the replacement of the original texture in limestone. Ooids are most commonly composed of calcium carbonate ( calcite or aragonite), but can be composed of phosphate, clays, chert, dolomite or iron minerals, including hematite.

Oolite limestone