Spreading Rock Dust On Fields Could Pull Carbon From The Air: Study

"“Enhanced rock weatherization” could store CO2 while also fertilizing farms".

"Spreading rock dust on farmland could pull enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to remove about half of the amount of that greenhouse gas currently produced by Europe, according to a major study published Thursday in the journal Nature.

And if China, the United States and India — the three countries that emit the most CO2 — adopted the practice on a large scale, they could collectively clear about 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air, according to the new research published by scientists at the University of Sheffield’s Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation and the university’s Energy Institute.

Known as enhanced rock weathering, the process involves layering crushed rock onto soil. When silicate or carbonate minerals in the dust dissolve in rain water, carbon dioxide is drawn from the atmosphere into the solution to form bicarbonate ions. The bicarbonate ions are eventually washed by runoff into the ocean, where they form carbonate minerals, storing their carbon indefinitely."

Lyndsey Layton reports for the Washington Post July 8, 2020.