![Man on the cliff with hammer and chisel](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0263copysmall-650x433.jpg)
In early spring, George Okoko stood on a 15-foot ledge atop a crumbling cliff, using a hammer and chisel to try to knock off a rock the size of a basketball. The scene was in the suburbs of Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. The rock was basalt, a common product of volcanic activity. The mass was formed about 200 million years ago during a massive eruption that slowly tore Europe away from North America, creating the rift that became the Atlantic Ocean.
Dr. Okoko.Candidate at Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatorywas more interested in basalt's modern uses than its geological history: capturing carbon in solid form beneath the nearby ocean floor and storing it permanently.
Basalt lies beneath much of New Jersey and is thought to extend to the ocean floor of the Atlantic Ocean. On land, they are most often hidden under soil, other types of rocks, roads, buildings, parking lots, and other human infrastructure. This particular outcrop, about 400 feet long, was exposed when people cut into the hillside and created a narrow, upwardly winding path called Ghost Pony Road. Today, Ghost Pony Road is wedged between the ever-roaring Interstate 78 and the busy uphill thoroughfares leading into the center of town.
![man carrying big stones](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0278small-650x433.jpg)
![man carrying big stones](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0278small-650x433.jpg)
For more than 20 years, scientists have been studying how basalt formations can be used to mitigate climate change. The chemistry of rocks varies, but many naturally react with carbon dioxide. When these reactions occur, carbon becomes trapped in a solid mineral similar to limestone. Natural reactions occur at a slow pace, but researchers believe they could be dramatically accelerated using a process similar to hydraulic fracturing that pumps carbon under high pressure. . already, iceland project What Lamont scientists helped set up is to pump emissions from the power plant into the basalt rock below. There are many other possible locations around the world, including Kenya's Central Rift Valley, where Okoko is from. The same goes for parts of the East Coast of the United States.
Okoko was not in Ghost Pony Road. Because everyone expects carbon injection projects to take place there. Rather, his research aims to characterize relevant geological formations that are thought to lie on the ocean floor off the coast of New York and New Jersey.lamont geophysicist david goldbergMr Okoko's advisers say it could potentially absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide produced by industry in the region.
![Two men carry a large frame made of plastic pipes towards a cliff.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0231small-650x433.jpg)
![Two men carry a large frame made of plastic pipes towards a cliff.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0231small-650x433.jpg)
![A person places a compass on a rock.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0283copysmall-650x433.jpg)
![A person places a compass on a rock.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0283copysmall-650x433.jpg)
Based on seismic data collected in the 1970s, scientists have long suspected that basalt, similar to that found on land, lies 30 to 60 miles offshore, at depths of 400 to 600 feet, and beneath sediments about 2,000 feet deep. I've been wondering if that's the case. However, they have not yet been clearly mapped or sampled.
Goldberg is leading a project to learn more about them. He points out that basalt isn't just abundant along the coast; So do factories, oil refineries, power plants, and cement and steel producers, which currently emit around 100 million tons of CO2 each year. Emissions could be captured directly from these point sources and transported by ship or pipeline to subsea injection sites, he says. He and his colleagues first proposed the idea. Basalt-rich areas off the Pacific Northwest coast 2008 and again For Northeast In a 2010 paper.
“The coast makes sense,” he says. „That's where the people are. That's where you need the power plants. And by going offshore, you reduce the risk.“ Among other things, injection into basalt on the ocean floor means that the emissions are trapped by deposits on the rocks. This trapping minimizes the chance of carbon dioxide escaping to the surface before it solidifies. Subsea sites also eliminate the need to occupy land in this densely populated area, reducing legal and jurisdictional hurdles.
![A man with a console is operating a drone.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0249copysmall-650x433.jpg)
![A man with a console is operating a drone.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0249copysmall-650x433.jpg)
However, not all basalt is created equal. Researchers need to further characterize potential carbon reservoirs to ensure they perform as expected. That's where Mr. Okoko comes in. By studying basalt, which is readily available on land, he and other researchers hope to use it as an analogue for what they believe to be rocks of similar composition on the ocean floor.
previous research It has been suggested that some batches of New Jersey's basalt are undergoing some of the world's fastest chemical reactions to trap carbon. However, Goldberg says more work needs to be done on this. The rock must also contain enough cracks to allow large amounts of carbon dioxide to pass through the cracks and pores.
Okoko had two assistants with her on today's excursion. Tabehon “TJ” McGarry, a Lamont geochemistry master's student, and Alexander Thompson, an undergraduate economics student at Columbia University.
![A man takes a photo of a cliff with his mobile phone.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0323small-650x433.jpg)
![A man takes a photo of a cliff with his mobile phone.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0323small-650x433.jpg)
In addition to taking samples for later laboratory analysis, the team's main task was to examine and document the density and orientation of cracks in the rock. These cracks may have formed by a variety of processes, including pressure from previously overlying sedimentary rocks that eroded over millions of years. Huge glacier cuts that have repeatedly moved across this terrain. Or earthquakes in the distant past that were much more powerful than the magnitude 4.8 quake. Reached about 20 miles West from here in April 2024.
McGarry and Thompson installed 5-by-5-foot square frames of cobblestoned plastic plumbing pipes in several locations to delineate areas for closer inspection and photography. Okoko used a hand sled and a chisel to climb up to six locations to collect samples. The object was severely disintegrated, exposed to the elements and water seeping in places. He often struggled to find his footing. Each time he loosened a stone, he handed it to his students, who lined it up on the side of the road. Okoko then descended to carve a mark marking the rock's original location.
These rocky, cracked areas are ideal habitat for venomous pit vipers and rattlesnakes, and New Jersey has both. In fact, at one point, the students backed away when they spotted a well-camouflaged snake curled up next to a rock. From then on, everyone was careful of their step. (Further analysis later determined it was a harmless eastern milk snake.)
![A man with a notebook examines the cliff face in detail.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0389small-650x433.jpg)
![A man with a notebook examines the cliff face in detail.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0389small-650x433.jpg)
The team held a long tape measure to the bottom of the cliff, and Okoko crawled step by step, counting the fractures and taking detailed notes of their size and orientation in a weatherproof notebook. From time to time he would remove chunks of loose rock and examine them closely. Then one spot behind him, in a wet spot, he found a slug and gently moved it.
Okoko flew a drone equipped with a camera along part of the cliff. It was a dangerous mission, given that part of the cliff was sheltered and, although the leaves had not yet fallen, there were small trees growing from the bottom. This situation continued until the drone became entangled in a small branch and crashed, sustaining damage that made it impossible to fly. To compensate, Okoko had Thompson walk along the cliff and take photos with his cell phone.
A few hours later, the team loaded several hundred pounds of sample rock into the back of a station wagon and drove an hour back to the Lamont campus. In the coming months, my colleagues will run various tests to analyze porosity and chemical properties.
This summer, Goldberg and his colleagues arranged for a plane to fly more than 6,000 miles on a grid line over what appeared to be underwater basalt formations. It will be equipped with instruments to measure magnetism and gravity, which will give us more information about what lies underground. The next step is drilling.
Depending on research results, funding and permitting, Goldberg said the company could move to industrial-scale injections relatively quickly from there. „This could happen within five years at the earliest,“ he says. Okoko plans to return to Kenya this summer to study the basalt.
![cliff face.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0226small-650x433.jpg)
![cliff face.](https://sotp.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0226small-650x433.jpg)