New clues for the long-term viability of geological carbon dioxide storage
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - 08:30
in Earth & Climate
The carbon dioxide (CO2) at the Bravo Dome gas field in New Mexico is volcanic in origin, and its emplacement began more than a million years ago, not 10 thousand years ago, as previously estimated. Averaged across the reservoir, only 20% of the CO2 has dissolved into the field's saline brine over 1.2 million years, while the rest remains as a free gas trapped by the cap-rock, suggesting that safe long-term storage in geological sites is viable.