As per new research, Earth is taking in huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere than earlier estimates. The new research could help researchers make more accurate projections about climate change, and also provide clues about how artificially reduce carbon from the atmosphere and beneath the Earth’s surface. This is not the first time a theory about carbon has come out.
The existing theory states that most of the carbon being sucked beneath the surface at these “subduction zones” gets released again in the form of volcanic emissions. However, the new study states that Earth’s interior only releases around a third of the carbon sucked up below the areas where the tectonic plate is under another.
Earth permanently sucking up carbon
These zones are mostly found where volcanoes form which spits out most of the sucked-up carbon. In simpler words, our planet is sucking up significant amounts of carbon without spewing it back out. This process is known as “plate subduction.”
“We currently have a relatively good understanding of the surface reservoirs of carbon and the fluxes between them but know much less about Earth’s interior carbon stores, which cycle carbon over millions of years,” said lead author Stefan Farsang, a Ph.D. student at Cambridge University.
Rocks turning into diamonds under pressure
Farsang and his teammates simulated the chemical reactions that happen in the tectonic plate rock. The team discovered that these reactions in the subduction zones can permanently take in the majority of this carbon and send it even deeper into the interior of the planet.
The research also suggests that rocks can become more magnesium-rich as they are being pushed deeper, making the carbonate less likely to be spewed out in a volcanic eruption. These rocks eventually turn into diamonds if the pressure is sufficient.
“These results will also help us understand better ways to lock carbon into the solid Earth, out of the atmosphere,” said co-author Simon Redfern, in the statement. “If we can accelerate this process faster than nature handles it, it could prove a route to help solve the climate crisis.”
