Enhanced Weathering

Definition

Enhanced weathering is a geoengineering technique that accelerates the natural process of weathering to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and sequester it in solid mineral forms. This method involves the application of crushed minerals, like basalt or olivine, to soils and oceans, increasing their ability to react with CO2. By promoting these chemical reactions, enhanced weathering can significantly contribute to carbon sequestration efforts and serve as a potential strategy for mitigating climate change.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. Enhanced weathering can sequester significant amounts of CO2, potentially offsetting emissions from various sources, including fossil fuels.
2. The crushed minerals used in enhanced weathering not only capture CO2 but also improve soil health and fertility, benefiting agriculture.
3. This method could be applied both on land and in marine environments, with different minerals chosen based on the specific ecological context.
4. The implementation of enhanced weathering can lead to co-benefits such as improved water quality by reducing nutrient runoff into water bodies.
5. Research into enhanced weathering is ongoing, with scientists studying its scalability, costs, and potential environmental impacts to ensure its feasibility as a carbon mitigation strategy.

Review Questions

• How does enhanced weathering contribute to carbon sequestration and what are its potential ecological benefits?
  • Enhanced weathering contributes to carbon sequestration by accelerating the natural weathering processes that capture atmospheric CO2. By applying crushed minerals to soils or oceans, these materials chemically react with CO2, forming stable carbonate compounds. Additionally, enhanced weathering can improve soil health and fertility, leading to better agricultural productivity while simultaneously reducing nutrient runoff and enhancing water quality in nearby ecosystems.
• Discuss the differences between enhanced weathering and mineral carbonation as methods for carbon sequestration.
  • Enhanced weathering focuses on accelerating natural processes by applying crushed minerals to large areas, allowing them to react with CO2 in soil or ocean environments over time. In contrast, mineral carbonation involves specific chemical reactions where CO2 is directly reacted with certain minerals in a controlled setting to produce stable carbonates. While both methods aim at sequestering carbon, enhanced weathering is more broad-reaching and potentially more scalable due to its application in various ecosystems.
• Evaluate the potential challenges and considerations that need to be addressed for enhanced weathering to become a widely adopted carbon mitigation strategy.
  • For enhanced weathering to be widely adopted as a carbon mitigation strategy, several challenges need to be addressed. These include understanding the long-term environmental impacts of applying crushed minerals at scale, the economic feasibility of sourcing and distributing these materials, and ensuring that the benefits outweigh any potential risks such as soil degradation or disruption of local ecosystems. Moreover, comprehensive research is needed to evaluate its effectiveness across different geographic regions and climates before it can be implemented on a large scale.

Related terms

Carbon Sequestration: The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations and combat climate change.

Mineral Carbonation: A natural process where CO2 reacts with minerals to form stable carbonates, effectively locking away carbon in solid form.

Geoengineering: Deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth's natural systems to counteract climate change, including techniques like enhanced weathering.