Plump up the clay: Carbon dioxide moves into and expands a common mineral in carbon sequestration caprocks

(Phys.org) -- For the first time, scientists have direct evidence that high-pressure carbon dioxide or CO2 migrates into the clay montmorillonite causing it to expand, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Montmorillonite is found in the rocks used to cap carbon sequestration sites, and scientists previously thought that only water could make it expand.  Caprocks spend thousands of years halting the escape of injected CO2. To learn how these rocks respond to CO2, the researchers studied the material under realistic sequestration conditions.

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