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Volcanology

Carbon below the sea floor

Magma from the mantle meets the ocean at seafloor spreading centres. At young rifts, basalt sills may heat overlying sediments and induce natural carbon release; basalt flows elsewhere may offer secure reservoirs for sequestration of anthropogenic carbon.

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Figure 1: Basalt flow dated to about 200 million years ago, in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province located in Virginia, USA.

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Goldberg, D. Carbon below the sea floor. Nature Geosci 4, 11–12 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1019

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