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Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumRocks can restore our climate… after 300,000 years
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2013/130708_1.html[font face=Serif][font size=5]Rocks can restore our climate
after 300,000 years[/font]
08 Jul 13
[font size=4]A study of a global warming event that happened 93 million years ago suggests that the Earth can recover from high carbon dioxide emissions faster than previously thought, but that this process takes around 300,000 years after emissions decline.[/font]
[font size=3]Scientists from Oxford University studied rocks from locations including Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, and South Ferriby, North Lincolnshire, to investigate how chemical weathering of rocks 'rebalanced' the climate after vast amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) were emitted during more than 10,000 years of volcanic eruptions.
In chemical weathering CO2 from the atmosphere dissolved in rainwater reacts with rocks such as basalt or granite, dissolving them so that this atmospheric carbon then flows into the oceans, where a large proportion is 'trapped' in the bodies of marine organisms.
The team tested the idea that, as CO2 warms the planet, the reactions involved in chemical weathering speed up, causing more CO2 to be 'locked away', until, if CO2 emissions decline, the climate begins to cool again. The Oxford team looked at evidence from the 'Ocean Anoxic Event 2' in the Late Cretaceous when volcanic activity spewed around 10 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year for over 10,000 years. The researchers found that during this period chemical weathering increased, locking away more CO2 as the world warmed and enabling the Earth to stabilise to a cooler climate within 300,000 years, up to four times faster than previously thought.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo187508 Jul 13
[font size=4]A study of a global warming event that happened 93 million years ago suggests that the Earth can recover from high carbon dioxide emissions faster than previously thought, but that this process takes around 300,000 years after emissions decline.[/font]
[font size=3]Scientists from Oxford University studied rocks from locations including Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, and South Ferriby, North Lincolnshire, to investigate how chemical weathering of rocks 'rebalanced' the climate after vast amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) were emitted during more than 10,000 years of volcanic eruptions.
In chemical weathering CO2 from the atmosphere dissolved in rainwater reacts with rocks such as basalt or granite, dissolving them so that this atmospheric carbon then flows into the oceans, where a large proportion is 'trapped' in the bodies of marine organisms.
The team tested the idea that, as CO2 warms the planet, the reactions involved in chemical weathering speed up, causing more CO2 to be 'locked away', until, if CO2 emissions decline, the climate begins to cool again. The Oxford team looked at evidence from the 'Ocean Anoxic Event 2' in the Late Cretaceous when volcanic activity spewed around 10 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year for over 10,000 years. The researchers found that during this period chemical weathering increased, locking away more CO2 as the world warmed and enabling the Earth to stabilise to a cooler climate within 300,000 years, up to four times faster than previously thought.
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Rocks can restore our climate… after 300,000 years (Original Post)
OKIsItJustMe
Jul 2013
OP
NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)1. Good news!
Everything is going to be alright.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)2. Nature has a habit of healing itself.
Its us who are the complete fucking nuisances.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)5. This a false dichotomy
Unless, of course, you feel that we are not part of nature.
The false dichotomy lies at the root of much of our problems. One group believes that we should dominate nature (as if we were not a part of nature.) Another believes that we should surrender to nature (as if we were not a part of nature.)
When we act (for good, or for ill) it is an act of nature.
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)3. Excellent! I'm going into suspended animation right now.
See you all in 302013, give or take a couple years.
Seriously, an interesting article and good science. Thanks for the post, OKIIJM.
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)6. You’re welcome!
This is the principle which some have suggested we could accelerate in an effort to neutralize carbon pollution.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/112744958
Laelth
(32,017 posts)4. Interesting. k&r for exposure. n/t
-Laelth