What is carbon sequestration?
Carbon dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse gas. Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing global climate change. The USGS is conducting assessments on two major types of carbon sequestration: geologic and biologic.
Related Content
How does carbon get into the atmosphere?
How much carbon dioxide does the United States and the World emit each year from energy sources?
Has the USGS made any Biologic Carbon Sequestration assessments?
Which area is the best for geologic carbon sequestration?
What’s the difference between geologic and biologic carbon sequestration?
How much carbon dioxide can the United States store via geologic sequestration?
Making Minerals-How Growing Rocks Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions
Following an assessment of geologic carbon storage potential in sedimentary rocks, the USGS has published a comprehensive review of potential carbon storage in igneous and metamorphic rocks through a process known as carbon mineralization.
Groundwater Sampling Method Key to Monitoring Success of Carbon Sequestration
TECHNICAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Monitoring, verification and accounting are key parts to demonstrating the feasibility or success of integrated carbon capture and storage technologies.
Methane from Some Wetlands May Lower Benefits of Carbon Sequestration
Methane emissions from restored wetlands may offset the benefits of carbon sequestration a new study from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests.
USGS Receives International Endorsement for Geologic Carbon Sequestration Methodology
The USGS methodology for assessing carbon dioxide (CO2) storage potential for geologic carbon sequestration was endorsed as a best practice for a country-wide storage potential assessment by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Carbon Sequestration: Implications for Wyoming
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research hydrologist Dr. Yousif Kharaka will present a talk in Cheyenne, Wyo. about the feasibility and implications of capturing and storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide underground in depleted oil fields and deep rock formations with salty aquifers.
New Science Gauges Potential to Store CO2
A new method to assess the nation's potential for storing carbon dioxide could lead to techniques for lessening the impacts of climate change, according to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who praised a U.S. Geological Survey report in an energy teleconference today.
"Carbon farm" project will study ways to capture atmospheric CO2
Imagine a new kind of farming in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - "carbon-capture" farming, which traps atmospheric carbon dioxide and rebuilds lost soils.
USGS Scientist Discusses Feasibility of CO2 Burial...
Depleted gas reservoirs can provide enough storage to limit carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels for at least 20 years, to levels set for the U.S. under the 1997 Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming, according to Dr. Robert Burruss of the U.S. Geological Survey.
How Does Carbon Get Into the Atmosphere?
A short video on how carbon can get into the atmosphere.
A valley with smog pollution from Carbon Sequestration.
Uncovering the Ecosystem Service Value of Carbon Sequestration in National Parks. Photo by Robert Crootof, NPS.
PubTalk 1/2011 — Capture and Geologic Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide
Is Sequestration Necessary? Can We Do It at an Acceptable Total Cost?
By Yousif Kharaka, USGS National Research Program
- Combustion of fossil fuels currently releases approximately 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere annually
- Increased anthropogenic emissions have dramatically raised
Can We Move Carbon from the Atmosphere and into Rocks?
A new method to assess the Nation's potential for storing carbon dioxide in rocks below the earth's surface could help lessen climate change impacts. The injection and storage of liquid carbon dioxide into subsurface rocks is known as geologic carbon sequestration.
USGS scientist Robert Burruss discusses this new methodology and how it can help mitigate climate
Carbon emissions associated with land change for the Sierra Nevadas
For the A1B-LUD scenario, cumulative emissions associated with land use, land use change, and disturbance (left) and projected land use, land cover, and disturbance area (right).
