Agree that the silicate mineral sand idea needs testing. I'd first start in the lab with a flask of freshly ground olivine in chemically well characterized, sterile seawater. I would then put this on a shaker table in the dark and let the sand and water gently slosh back and forth for a few days and then measure the SW alkalinity and DIC again. this would give you and idea of the efficacy and kinetics under ideal conditions. Measuring this in a beach setting would be trickier, but possible. My guess is that there are synergies with sediment respiration/microbes that hasten silicate weathering. Add in some fresh sediment to the above flask and see what happens.
Greg >________________________________ > From: Andrew Lockley <[email protected]> >To: geoengineering <[email protected]> >Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 11:28 AM >Subject: [geo] Natural olivine beaches > > > >Hi >The proposal for olivine weathering on beaches seems to pass a common sense >test. >However, there's been a lack of detailed discussion about the occurrence and >function of natural olivine beaches, as far as I'm aware. >There are a lot of beaches in the world. Olivine is pretty common. How much of >a sink is natural beach chemical and mechanical weathering of olivine? >It should be easy to find at least one location where there's massive >quantities of olivine sand, and take detailed measurements on the carbon sink. >I know there's at least one such beach in the literature, but I can't recall >discussions of others, nor detailed quantitative research on erosion and >sequestration rates at this site >Can someone enlighten me as to why this has seemingly been overlooked for >detailed study? >A -- >You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >"geoengineering" group. >To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >email to [email protected]. >To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. >For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
