>> TOM PYDEN: For my seismology course today,
we had to design a proposal for an experiment
on something that hasn't been done before
using seismology.
And seismology is just looking at waves through
the earth and figuring out the structure of
the earth.
So we decided to do a proposal on a project
based on taking CO2 from the environment and
storing it back into the earth.
Kind of the opposite of what the oil industries
do today.
Now this puts a different spin, kind of, on
what people think that big oil companies do.
They always take it out and they're bad because
they throw CO2 into the environment, but they
also can take it and put it back in there.
So, our project, it was called "carbon sequestration,"
and that's the process of putting carbon back
into the earth.
So, what we did was, we looked at oceanic
basalts.
And we know that, naturally, in the environment
basalts react with CO2 and they form stable
carbonate precipitation, such as calcite minerals,
like this giant crystal behind me.
Once we put the CO2 into the basalt and store
it there, it will precipitate minerals, like
calcite, out and it will be stable in the
environment.
Calcite is a naturally occurring mineral so
once we get the harmful CO2 into the environment
it forms naturally occurring crystals, and
the risk for leakage and for it to get back
into the environment to cause more damage
would be minimal.
And that's really what we're looking for.
And we designed this project because there
aren't many projects out there that have to
deal with this.
And this is kind of a new study.
There's been no case studies done where they
actually drilled in to pump CO2 into oceanic
basalts.
So, this is something completely new, but
completely doable.
It might be more expensive to do but, in the
long run, it's going to be a lot better for
the environment.
And, hopefully, once we get into the industry,
we can propose these ideas and save the world.
