14 DAY TRIAL // For the last two centuries or so people have been continuously emitting large quantities of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere, a careless action currently considered the number one factor triggering the global warming phenomenon. The burning of fossil fuels isn't going to stop any time soon, which is likely to exacerbate the effects of climate change, but since we are so self-important, we are determined to do something so that the effects are either minimized or completely reversed, although there is no guarantee that this would actually happen. After all we're dealing with a planet, not a greenhouse.
People release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, people are going to take it out. Sounds great, but where do we put it? The soil is not very good at retaining carbon dioxide, while placing it in the ocean waters is definitely out of the question because it alters the chemical composition of the water, determining far more serious environmental problems.
A new study now suggests storing carbon dioxide in the basaltic rocks on the ocean floor. Since they are igneous rocks, as they form on the ocean floor they cool rapidly, forming cracks that would provide a great volume where carbon dioxide could be injected. The fine sediment layer covering the rock formation would work as a mechanism to prevent carbon dioxide from escaping into the waters atop, while in time chemical processes would convert the carbon dioxide into insoluble carbonates.
However, in order for this process to work, the rocks would have to form at a depth greater than 2,700 meters, where the water pressure would be high enough to maintain the injected carbon dioxide to a density higher than that of the surrounding water, the rest of the work in keeping it there being done by gravity.
According to estimations, the western coast of the United States provides a carbon dioxide storing volume of about 780 square kilometers, enough to house some 250 Gt of gas, equivalent to the expected amount of emissions generated by the US in the next 100 years.
The downside of the procedure is that currently there is no data regarding the permeability of the basaltic rock on the ocean floor or any indication to how fast the conversion process into carbonates would take place.