Collaborative Research: Establishing a Novel Geophysical Monitoring Scheme for Delineating In Situ Carbonation Processes in Ultramafic Complexes

该项目使用地球物理方法研究地质构造中的自然碳封存过程。在最大范围内，这一方法最终将评估未来在大气二氧化碳监测和缓解工作中的地质应用。这项研究试图建立一种新颖的、基于现场的、高分辨率的监测技术，以了解碳如何通过自然碳化过程发生。他们使用现场最先进的传感器获取的磁学和重力测量。调查地点位于加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省阿特林蛇绿岩内，此前的研究表明，那里有相关岩石的暴露。他们的方法使研究人员能够直接观察碳化过程，并深入了解这一重要的科学过程及其对更广泛的地球科学界的影响。地球形成过程中发生的化学过程？S岩石代表着全球碳循环中最大的单个长期汇。其中一个过程是橄榄岩碳化作用，这是一种气体二氧化碳(CO2)通过现有岩石和水的相互作用而凝固的化学过程。了解橄榄岩碳化作用对于理解各种地球科学过程非常重要，包括大气、水圈(如海洋、河流、地下水等)和地球-S地壳和内部之间的碳交换，这一过程所寄生的微生物的宜居性，以及碳(特别是数量和分布)在地球演化中的作用。此外，橄榄岩碳化过程是一种永久(即稳定和长期)的二氧化碳储存方法，有可能成为地质二氧化碳封存最有效的应用之一。因此，橄榄岩碳化作用可能为人为(人造)二氧化碳的长期储存提供一种可行的方法。他们测试了一种假设，即磁学和重力信号的可观测变化对应于岩石的磁性和重力吸引力，而这种吸引力随着岩石中自然发生的碳固存的变化而变化。以前，这一假说只在实验室中使用小野外样本进行验证；在这里，他们直接在大型野外研究中研究这一过程，以前的映射表明，地幔橄榄岩、蛇纹岩和列文岩(地幔橄榄岩碳化过程的最终产物)在野外暴露和明显的空间分带，这些岩石被由包括两个相邻端元组合的过渡组合组成的附加带分开。

This project investigates natural carbon sequestration processes in geologic formations using geophysical methods. At the largest scale, this approach will ultimately assess future geological applications for atmospheric CO2 monitoring and mitigation efforts. The research seeks to establish a novel, field-based, high-resolution monitoring technique for how carbon sequestration takes place through natural carbonation processes. They use magnetics and gravity measurements acquired by state-of-art sensors in the field. The survey site is located within Atlin ophiolite, British Columbia, Canada,where previous studies indicate exposure of the relevant rocks. Their approach allows the reseachers to directly observe the carbonation process and gain insight into this important scientific process as well as its impacts on the broader earth science community.Chemical processes occurring during the formation of Earth?s rock represents the largest single long-term sink in the global carbon cycle. One such process is peridotite carbonation, the chemical process in which gaseous carbon dioxide (CO2) is solidified by the interaction of existing rock and water. Understanding peridotite carbonation is important for understanding a variety of Earth science processes, including the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere, hydrosphere (e.g., oceans, rivers, groundwater, etc) and Earth?s crust and interior, the habitability of microbial organisms hosted by this process, and the role that carbon (specifically amount and distribution) play in the evolution of Earth. Furthermore, the peridotite carbonation process serves as a permanent (i.e., stable and long-term) method for storing CO2 and has the potential to be one of the most efficient applications for geological CO2 sequestration. Thus peridotite carbonation may provide a viable method for the long-term storage of anthropogenic (man made) CO2. They test the hypothesis that observable changes in magnetics and gravity signals correspond to the magnetic and gravitational attraction of the rock that changes with variations in the naturally occurring carbon sequestration within the rock. Previously, this hypothesis has only been tested in the laboratory using small field samples; here they study this process directly in large field studies, where previous mapping indicated the exposure and clear spatial zonation in the field of mantle peridotite, serpentinite and listvenite (the end product of the carbonation process of mantle peridotite) that are separated by additional zones consisting of transitional assemblages comprising both adjacent end-member assemblages.