Injecting carbon dioxide into basalt rock creates a chemical reaction that literally cracks the stone open, making more room for storage.
April 24, 2026
Original Paper
Experimental observations that carbonation of basalt stores CO2 in coupled reaction induced fractures
SSRN · 6629845
The Takeaway
Basalt rocks undergo reaction-induced fracturing when they react with injected CO2 to form minerals. Standard engineering assumes that as minerals fill up the pores in a rock, the storage capacity would slowly drop to zero. Instead, the pressure from the growing crystals creates a new network of cracks that increases the rock total porosity. This self-expanding storage means basalt formations could hold significantly more carbon than previous estimates suggested. This process turns a major hurdle for carbon sequestration into a natural engine that helps clean the atmosphere.
From the abstract
Recent laboratory and field studies have highlighted that in-situ carbonation within basalt formations could provide secure storage for anthropogenic CO2. Here, we present the results of a continuous 93-day laboratory experiment simulating the geological reservoir environment of engineered CO2 mineralisation. The CO2 mineralisation reaction is documented in a time-resolved dataset of 3-dimensional x-ray microtomography images. The chemical, physical, and mineralogical changes in the sample over