Better explicating the strengths and shortcomings of these models will help refine projections and improve transparency in the years ahead.
Image credit: Witsawat.S.
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Communicated by Wallace S. Broecker, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, May 7, 2008 (received for review April 3, 2008)
Article Figures & SI
Figures
- Fig. 1.
Deep-sea basalt on the seafloor. Photograph of deep-sea pillow lavas emplaced on the ocean bottom near the Juan de Fuca ridge (data from cruise AT11-16, Alvin Dive 4045; http://4dgeo.whoi.edu). Rounded, intact pillow lavas transition to small cobbles and fragments across the area, forming large interpillow voids. Image scale is ≈1.5 m × 1 m (red laser points are 4 cm apart; water depth is ≈2,200 m).
- Fig. 2.
In situ physical properties of basalt below the seafloor. Geophysical log profiles from 350 to 580 m below the seafloor at Site U1301 indicate massive flow layers (yellow) and fractured pillow lava intervals (white). Porosity profiles are computed by using in situ electrical resistivity, density, and neutron logs and established relationships for young ocean basalt (42, 43); black dots represent shipboard measurements on core samples (32). In situ and core porosity estimates agree in massive flows, but differ in fractured zones because of the enlarged borehole diameter. Core and downhole data come from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program database (http://www.iodp.org/).
- Fig. 3.
Deep-sea basalt core and downhole image. In situ microresistivity image representing the interior circumference of the hole (42) over a 2.7-m interval at Site U1301. Massive flows and intact lavas have high resistivities and appear bright in the image; conductive features such as seawater-filled voids, fractures, and contacts between pillow lavas and flows appear dark and reflect the porous, asymmetric structure of basalt basement. Massive flows with high-angle fractures are also observed in a 2.7-m core recovered between 376 and 386 m below the seafloor. For improved illustration, the horizontal/vertical exaggeration is 3:1 for the core image and 2:3 for the downhole image. Core and downhole data come from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program database (www.iodp.org/).
- Fig. 4.
Deep-sea basalt region for CO2 sequestration. Red outline shows the region where water depths are ≥2,700 m and sediment thickness is ≥200 m, covering an area of 78,000 km2. Hatched region shows the decrease in area having ≥300 m sediment cover, resulting in a total area of 68,000 km2. The region excludes seamounts with >100 m of topographic relief and areas close to the surrounding plate boundaries and the base of the continental shelf. Heavy black line indicates the location of a single-channel seismic profile through potential CO2 injection zones (R/V Conrad line 1501, Inset Top Left). Sediment thickness data comes from a digital database compiled by the National Geophysical Data Center (44), with a 5 arc-minute by 5 arc-minute grid spacing, providing a minimum value for the total thickness of sediment. The Marine Geoscience Data System (http://www.marine-geo.org/) provides ocean bathymetry, merging multibeam bathymetry with regional lower-resolution compilations, predicted topography from Smith and Sandwell (45), as well as land topography from the NASA Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (http://srtm.usgs.gov).
Carbon dioxide sequestration in deep-sea basalt
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