14 DAY TRIAL // As global warming progresses, and the amount of carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere increases annually, solutions for cleaning up the air are becoming more and more desperately needed. A new study will look at the performances of aquifers in this regard.
Aquifers are natural water sponges. They are made up of particular types of rocks, which are able to store water, and then release it constantly. In time, they may get replenished, or they may lose all of their stored water. Scientists see here an opportunity they could take advantage of.
One of the main drives today, as far as removing CO2 from the atmosphere goes, is to capture the chemical before it exits smokestacks, and storing it underground. Depleted aquifers provide natural reservoirs that may fix massive amounts of carbon underground.
Removing CO2 from the air will go a long way towards taming the rampant greenhouse effect that is currently plaguing our planet. However, the cleanup effort needs to be applied at the largest scale possible, in order to create the necessary effects.
“Currently, more carbon dioxide is being produced by various sources, both natural and anthropogenic, and is going into the atmosphere,” explains Kansas State University (K-State) expert, Saugata Datta.
The scientist, an assistant professor of geology, is the leader of the K-State team that participates in this comprehensive, statewide study. Scientists from other universities and research group are also a part of the effort.
“This study is not to look at what carbon dioxide does to the atmosphere, but rather how to sequester it and keep it from reaching the atmosphere in the first place,” Datta goes on to say. He and his team will soon begin studying the carbon-trapping potential of the Arbuckle aquifer under Kansas.
Arbuckle is part of a group of 10 aquifers scattered across the United States that are being targeted by the new investigation. Others are located in Colorado, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Utah, South Carolina, Wyoming and Alabama.
The nationwide study is expected to conclude in 2015, when all statewide researches are completed, and their results centralized. Experts will then have access to a database that will inform them of the overall potential the nation's aquifers have for long-term carbon storage.