Decarbonization Conversations: Anoxic Marine Basins May Help Mitigate Climate Change

Already, the ocean is the largest carbon sink on the planet. It has kept a lid on our excess emissions but at a cost. The carbon dioxide (CO2) being absorbed by seawater is making it more acidic which is endangering all shellfish, crustaceans, phytoplankton, and corals.

A new take on the deep ocean storage idea is to sequester carbon in areas where there is a paucity of oxygen-dependent marine life. Instead of giant bags in which to store CO2, the weight of the ocean water column would be enough to keep the carbon sequestered.

Researchers at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UC-Santa Barbara) have identified three potential carbon storage sites that are anoxic marine basins where vast amounts of plant biomass could be sunk to the ocean floor removing megatons of CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in a stable environment that should last more than a millennium.