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posted by Snow on Friday March 15 2019, @04:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the crushed-crust-carbon-capture dept.

Major Ice Ages may be Caused by Tectonic Collisions:

At geological time scales, what really controls the climate isn’t the atmosphere, it’s the ground. Most of Earth’s carbon dioxide is held underground, in reservoirs of natural gas and oil, but also in the rocks themselves. As the planet’s tectonic plates slide and churn against one another, they bury carbon deep beneath the surface while exposing fresh rock that will soak up more carbon over time.

That carbon can be liberated in large volcanic events, causing mass extinctions. But the process can also work the other way, where rocks pull carbon from the sky. A new study from MIT researchers claims that Earth’s last three major ice ages were caused by collisions of tectonic plates bringing fresh, carbon-hungry rock to the surface. Over millions of years, these rocks sucked up enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to cause temperatures to plummet and send glaciers marching outward from the poles.

The process is simple. Much of the rock in Earth’s mantle is composed largely of silicate, and when exposed to the air, it will naturally react with carbon dioxide, forming new minerals that sequester carbon as a solid. This process is much more likely to occur in the tropics where temperatures are higher and frequent rain will wash soils away to expose bare rock.

At certain points in Earth’s history, oceanic tectonic plates in the tropics have collided with continental plates, sliding over the top of them and exposing hundreds of thousands of square miles of fresh rock to the air. These pile-ups, called arc-continent collisions, create a generous supply of fresh rock. Weathering processes begin as they come into contact with air and over the course of a few million years, carbon is gradually drained from the atmosphere.

Direct link to the study: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2019/03/13/science.aav5300


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @05:48PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @05:48PM (#814914)

    Yay science! I haven't heard this one before, very interesting. Not something for us to worry about in the short term, just another thing to keep track of.

    See you coal rollers, just wait long enough and you'll become environmentalists saving us from carbon sequestration.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 15 2019, @05:52PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday March 15 2019, @05:52PM (#814915) Journal

    How about this one. Use nukes to create a large crevice, hopefully exposing carbon-thirsty rock and maybe causing a little nuclear winter on the side.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @06:22PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @06:22PM (#814931)

      Not new #lame #stupid