Using Mount Teide's Basalt for Climate Change Mitigation

Overview

• Location: Canary Islands
• Feature: Home to Mount Teide, one of the world's largest active volcanoes.
• Potential: The basalt rock within Mount Teide might be used to offset Earth's emissions.

Rock Weathering Process

• Natural Occurrence: Happens when rainwater mixes with atmospheric CO2, forming a weak acid that reacts with silicates.
• Impact: Converts CO2 into bicarbonate, which is transported to oceans where marine life uses it to form shells. When they die, CO2 is trapped on the seafloor.
• Climate Effect: Helps regulate Earth's climate over millennia, speeding up in warm, wet conditions and slowing in cold, dry conditions.

Enhanced Rock Weathering

Concept

• Technique: Harvest fast-weathering rock like basalt, crush it, and spread it for accelerated weathering.
• Goal: Speed up the natural process to draw down atmospheric carbon efficiently.

Advantages

• Existing Technology: Utilizes current mining and processing systems.
• Improved Crop Yield: Volcanic rocks and soils are known to enhance agricultural productivity.
• Practical Deployment: Could utilize farmland as prime dispersal sites.

Challenges

1. Measurement Difficulty: Rock weathering affects the entire global water cycle, complicating impact assessment.
2. Logistical and Ecological Issues: Quarrying, crushing, transporting, and spreading rock pose significant challenges.
3. Clean Energy Requirement: Essential to use clean energy for operations to avoid negating the project's carbon benefits.
4. Potential Side Effects: Risks of unintended ecological impacts, such as heavy metal contamination.

Future Implementation

• Global Scale: Requires worldwide deployment to be effective.
• Simulation Success: Suggests potential to sequester over 200 gigatons of CO2 by spreading basalt dust on global farmland over 75 years.
• Conclusion: Enhanced rock weathering offers a promising, practical, and cost-effective strategy without needing to destroy volcanoes.