Another day, another battle against the gaseous carbon enemy. This time the warriors were scientists Stubbs, Power, and their band of rock-mauling brothers in arms. Their mission: crush and degrade mineral samples to see which ones could best entomb CO2.
The combatants lined up their targets. Brucite, wollastonite, serpentinite, kimberlite – those were the rocks to be broken. Common minerals, but each would require different tactics to make them surrender their crystalline integrity.
First into the pit was brucite. This fancy stuff usually sips refined quarry waters. But the scientists waterboarded it mercilessly, drenching and drying it out in cycle after cycle of hydro-torture. Brucite had no chance, crumbling into an obedient rubble pile.
Wollastonite fared no better against the endless wet-dry onslaught. This grimy calcium silicate may have come from rough terrain, but it too got demolished into crushed shards and particles.
Then came the big bruisers – serpentinite and kimberlite. Violent birth-rocks from the molten guts of the earth itself. They took punch after punch of soaking and desiccation but just wouldn’t quit. Layer after layer sloughed off in the mineral version of a back-alley beating.
Using the latest carbon quantification tech from UIC Inc., the warriors precisely measured each granular remains to assess its CO2 storage potential. Brucite and wollastonite were totally disassembled – ready to entomb greenhouse gases indefinitely. Serpentinite and kimberlite were heavily degraded but bits still remained defiant.
In the end, a hierarchy of candidates was clear. Some rocks creased under cyclic water attacks while others absorbed trauma after trauma before succumbing. All that mattered was determining which ones could best contain the suffocating carbon enemy in rubble form.
To see the instruments they used, click here: UIC Inc. – Your source for carbon and sulfur analysis
