Several methods have been proposed in recent years to counteract climate change and ocean acidification by removing CO2 from the atmosphere (Carbon Dioxide Removal). The most versatile and widely applicable of these m...Several methods have been proposed in recent years to counteract climate change and ocean acidification by removing CO2 from the atmosphere (Carbon Dioxide Removal). The most versatile and widely applicable of these methods is enhanced weathering of olivine, which is capable of removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere at moderate cost compared to the high cost of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Despite its disadvantages, CCS is still the favored solution of many governments. Many misunderstandings of the potential of enhanced weathering persist. This paper addresses some of these misunderstandings, mainly caused by models which ignore established facts.展开更多
One natural process has since the origin of the Earth removed almost all the CO2 that was ever produced by volcanism. That process is the reaction of CO2 and water with rocks, a process known as weathering. It is a lo...One natural process has since the origin of the Earth removed almost all the CO2 that was ever produced by volcanism. That process is the reaction of CO2 and water with rocks, a process known as weathering. It is a logical choice to see if we can use the same process to remove also the vastly higher CO2 emissions caused by burning in a few hundred years the fossil fuels that have taken hundreds of millions of years for their formation. Many people claim that the rate of weathering of olivine is too slow to counter climate change, but they base this on experimental data in sterile laboratories, under exclusion of biotic and other environmental factors. As many conditions determine the weathering rate at each specific location, these laboratory conditions are irrelevant for the real world. Weathering models based on these laboratory data are off by orders of magnitude. Weathering experiments that use conditions closer to nature [1] show already much higher weathering rates. In this note I provide some data on the weathering of olivine in nature, which make clear that the weathering of olivine is fast enough to play an important role in the cycle of CO2 capture and its safe and sustainable storage as carbonate rocks. The CO2 released by volcanism has always been captured by the weathering of rocks since the origin of the Earth. Without this mechanism the Earth would be a lifeless planet with a CO2 atmosphere in the order of 100 bar, as our neighbor planet Venus demonstrates.展开更多
Troodos is a classical ophiolite complex. It is proposed that the serpentinized harzburgites that now form the top of the mountain and represent the originally lowest part of the ophiolite sequence rose as a diapir. T...Troodos is a classical ophiolite complex. It is proposed that the serpentinized harzburgites that now form the top of the mountain and represent the originally lowest part of the ophiolite sequence rose as a diapir. This diapiric rise is caused by the pervasive serpentinization of a suboceanic harzburgite, due to rock-sea water interaction. The serpentinization caused a 44% expansion of the rocks. Contrary to salt diapirism, the driving force for this diapiric rise is not so much the difference in density, but the volume increase asscociated with the transformation of harzburgite into serpentinite. The overlying gabbros, sheeted dike complex and pillow lavas were pierced by this serpentinite diapir but barely deformed. Their interaction with sea water was li- mited to some pyroxenes in the gabbros being transformed to amphiboles, and epidotisation of some of the dikes in the sheeted dike complex. The location of steep faults in the Troodos massif is determined by the contrasting expansion behavior of different rock-types on both sides of the fault.展开更多
文摘Several methods have been proposed in recent years to counteract climate change and ocean acidification by removing CO2 from the atmosphere (Carbon Dioxide Removal). The most versatile and widely applicable of these methods is enhanced weathering of olivine, which is capable of removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere at moderate cost compared to the high cost of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Despite its disadvantages, CCS is still the favored solution of many governments. Many misunderstandings of the potential of enhanced weathering persist. This paper addresses some of these misunderstandings, mainly caused by models which ignore established facts.
文摘One natural process has since the origin of the Earth removed almost all the CO2 that was ever produced by volcanism. That process is the reaction of CO2 and water with rocks, a process known as weathering. It is a logical choice to see if we can use the same process to remove also the vastly higher CO2 emissions caused by burning in a few hundred years the fossil fuels that have taken hundreds of millions of years for their formation. Many people claim that the rate of weathering of olivine is too slow to counter climate change, but they base this on experimental data in sterile laboratories, under exclusion of biotic and other environmental factors. As many conditions determine the weathering rate at each specific location, these laboratory conditions are irrelevant for the real world. Weathering models based on these laboratory data are off by orders of magnitude. Weathering experiments that use conditions closer to nature [1] show already much higher weathering rates. In this note I provide some data on the weathering of olivine in nature, which make clear that the weathering of olivine is fast enough to play an important role in the cycle of CO2 capture and its safe and sustainable storage as carbonate rocks. The CO2 released by volcanism has always been captured by the weathering of rocks since the origin of the Earth. Without this mechanism the Earth would be a lifeless planet with a CO2 atmosphere in the order of 100 bar, as our neighbor planet Venus demonstrates.
文摘Troodos is a classical ophiolite complex. It is proposed that the serpentinized harzburgites that now form the top of the mountain and represent the originally lowest part of the ophiolite sequence rose as a diapir. This diapiric rise is caused by the pervasive serpentinization of a suboceanic harzburgite, due to rock-sea water interaction. The serpentinization caused a 44% expansion of the rocks. Contrary to salt diapirism, the driving force for this diapiric rise is not so much the difference in density, but the volume increase asscociated with the transformation of harzburgite into serpentinite. The overlying gabbros, sheeted dike complex and pillow lavas were pierced by this serpentinite diapir but barely deformed. Their interaction with sea water was li- mited to some pyroxenes in the gabbros being transformed to amphiboles, and epidotisation of some of the dikes in the sheeted dike complex. The location of steep faults in the Troodos massif is determined by the contrasting expansion behavior of different rock-types on both sides of the fault.
