Basalt weathering rates on Earth and the duration of liquid water on the plains of Gusev Crater, Mars

Where Martian rocks have been exposed to liquid water, chemistry versus depth profiles could elucidate both Martian climate history and potential for life. The persistence of primary minerals in weathered profiles constrains the exposure time to liquid water: on Earth, mineral persistence times range from {approx}10 ka (olivine) to {approx}250 ka (glass) to {approx}1Ma (pyroxene) to {approx}5Ma (plagioclase). Such persistence times suggest mineral persistence minima on Mars. However, Martian solutions may have been more acidic than on Earth. Relative mineral weathering rates observed for basalt in Svalbard (Norway) and Costa Rica demonstrate that laboratory pH trends can be used to estimate exposure to liquid water both qualitatively (mineral absence or presence) and quantitatively (using reactive transport models). Qualitatively, if the Martian solution pH > {approx}2, glass should persist longer than olivine; therefore, persistence of glass may be a pH-indicator. With evidence for the pH of weathering, the reactive transport code CrunchFlow can quantitatively calculate the minimum duration of exposure to liquid water consistent with a chemical profile. For the profile measured on the surface of Humphrey in Gusev Crater, the minimum exposure time is 22 ka. If correct, this estimate is consistent with short-term, episodic alteration accompanied by ongoing surface erosion. More of these depth profiles should be measured to illuminate the weathering history of Mars

Mars Sample Return: The Value of Depth Profiles

Sample return from Mars offers the promise of data from Martian materials that have previously only been available from meteorites. Return of carefully selected samples may yield more information about the history of water and possible habitability through Martian history. Here we propose that samples collected from Mars should include depth profiles of material across the interface between weathered material on the surface of Mars into unweathered parent rock material. Such profiles have the potential to yield chemical kinetic data that can be used to estimate the duration of water and information about potential habitats on Mars

A comparison of Eulerian and Lagrangian transport and non-linear reaction algorithms

When laboratory-measured chemical reaction rates are used in simulations at the field-scale, the models typically overpredict the apparent reaction rates. The discrepancy is primarily due to poorer mixing of chemically distinct waters at the larger scale. As a result, realistic field-scale predictions require accurate simulation of the degree of mixing between fluids. The Lagrangian particle-tracking (PT) method is a now-standard way to simulate the transport of conservative or sorbing solutes. The method’s main advantage is the absence of numerical dispersion (and its artificial mixing) when simulating advection. New algorithms allow particles of different species to interact in nonlinear (e.g., bimolecular) reactions. Therefore, the PT methods hold a promise of more accurate field-scale simulation of reactive transport because they eliminate the masking effects of spurious mixing due to advection errors inherent in grid-based methods. A hypothetical field-scale reaction scenario is constructed and run in PT and Eulerian (finite-volume/finite-difference) simulators. Grid-based advection schemes considered here include 1st- to 3rd-order spatially accurate total-variation-diminishing flux-limiting schemes, both of which are widely used in current transport/reaction codes. A homogeneous velocity field in which the Courant number is everywhere unity, so that the chosen Eulerian methods incur no error when simulating advection, shows that both the Eulerian and PT methods can achieve convergence in the L1 (integrated concentration) norm, but neither shows stricter pointwise convergence. In this specific case with a constant dispersion coefficient and bimolecular reaction A+B¿P, the correct total amount of product is 0.221MA0, where MA0 is the original mass of reactant A. When the Courant number drops, the grid-based simulations can show remarkable errors due to spurious over- and under-mixing. In a heterogeneous velocity field (keeping the same constant and isotropic dispersion), the PT simulations show an increased reaction total from 0.221MA0 to 0.372MA0 due to fluid deformation, while the 1st-order Eulerian simulations using ˜ 106 cells (with a classical grid Peclet number ¿x/aL of 10) have total product of 0.53MA0, or approximately twice as much additional reaction due to advection error. The 3rd-order TVD algorithm fares better, with total product of 0.394MA0, or about 1.14 times the increased reaction total. A very strict requirement on grid Peclet numbers for Eulerian simulations will be required for realistic reactions because of their nonlinear nature. We analytically estimate the magnitude of the effect for the end-member cases of very fast and very slow reactions and show that in either case, the mass produced is proportional to View the MathML source where Pe is the Peclet number. Therefore, extra mass is produced according to View the MathML source where the dispersion includes any numerical dispersion error. We test two PT methods, one that kills particles upon reaction and another that decrements a particle’s mass. For the bimolecular reaction studied here, the computational demands of the particle-killing methods are much smaller than, and the particle-number-preserving algorithm are on par with, the fastest Eulerian methods.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Potential for large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands

Enhanced silicate rock weathering (ERW), deployable with croplands, has potential use for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR), which is now necessary to mitigate anthropogenic climate change1. ERW also has possible co-benefits for improved food and soil security, and reduced ocean acidification2,3,4. Here we use an integrated performance modelling approach to make an initial techno-economic assessment for 2050, quantifying how CDR potential and costs vary among nations in relation to business-as-usual energy policies and policies consistent with limiting future warming to 2 degrees Celsius5. China, India, the USA and Brazil have great potential to help achieve average global CDR goals of 0.5 to 2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year with extraction costs of approximately US$80–180 per tonne of CO2. These goals and costs are robust, regardless of future energy policies. Deployment within existing croplands offers opportunities to align agriculture and climate policy. However, success will depend upon overcoming political and social inertia to develop regulatory and incentive frameworks. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of ERW deployment, including the potential for excess industrial silicate materials (basalt mine overburden, concrete, and iron and steel slag) to obviate the need for new mining, as well as uncertainties in soil weathering rates and land–ocean transfer of weathered products

Evolution of porosity and diffusivity associated with chemical weathering of a basalt clast

Weathering of rocks as a result of exposure to water and the atmosphere can cause significant changes in their chemistry and porosity. In low-porosity rocks, such as basalts, changes in porosity, resulting from chemical weathering, are likely to modify the rock's effective diffusivity and permeability, affecting the rate of solute transport and thus potentially the rate of overall weathering to the extent that transport is the rate limiting step. Changes in total porosity as a result of mineral dissolution and precipitation have typically been used to calculate effective diffusion coefficients through Archie's law for reactive transport simulations of chemical weathering, but this approach fails to account for unconnected porosity that does not contribute to transport. In this study, we combine synchrotron X-ray microcomputed tomography ({mu}CT) and laboratory and numerical diffusion experiments to examine changes in both total and effective porosity and effective diffusion coefficients across a weathering interface in a weathered basalt clast from Costa Rica. The {mu}CT data indicate that below a critical value of {approx}9%, the porosity is largely unconnected in the basalt clast. The {mu}CT data were further used to construct a numerical pore network model to determine upscaled, effective diffusivities as a function of total porosity (ranging from 3 to 30%) for comparison with diffusivities determined in laboratory tracer experiments. By using effective porosity as the scaling parameter and accounting for critical porosity, a model is developed that accurately predicts continuum-scale effective diffusivities across the weathering interface of the basalt clast