Undersea Volcanic Rocks Offer Vast Repository For Greenhouse Gas, Says Study
Monday, July 14, 2008 - 20:21
in Earth & Climate
A group of scientists has used deep ocean-floor drilling and experiments to show that volcanic rocks off the West Coast and elsewhere might be used to securely imprison huge amounts of globe-warming carbon dioxide captured from power plants or other sources. In particular, they say that natural chemical reactions under 78,000 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) of ocean floor off California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia could lock in as much as 150 years of US carbon dioxide production.