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Olivine weathering - Works in Progress

worksinprogress.co · 5,817 words · saved by 3 readers

Olivine is a green mineral that reacts with CO2 in the ocean to form a harmless silt. This reaction might be the key to slowing down climate change, or reversing it altogether.

A long cycle – as powerful as it is slow – is at work in the rocks, rainwater and air of Earth. Over eons, it moderates the planet’s temperature, makes molehills of mountains, and smooths out fluctuations in the climate. Consider the lowly carbon dioxide molecule. When released into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion or a volcanic eruption, a molecule of CO₂ will only stay in the air for four to five years on average. By that point, it is more likely than not to have become part of a plant via photosynthesis, or have dissolved into rainwater and flushed into the ocean. When the tree it

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