Home▸Geology & Earth Science▸Turning Volcanic Rock Into a Carbon Sink

🌋 Turning Volcanic Rock Into a Carbon Sink

Basalt and olivine naturally react with CO2 to form solid carbonate minerals over geological time — enhanced weathering and mineral carbonation aim to speed that reaction up into a genuine, permanent carbon removal technology.

Geology & Earth Science3DAdvanced60 FPS🌍 Earth

Crushed volcanic rock is spread across a field while atmospheric CO₂ molecules drift down, dissolve onto grain surfaces, and slowly turn dark basalt or olivine into a pale carbonate crust — a speeded-up view of enhanced weathering.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Mineral carbonation: silicate rock reacting with dissolved CO₂ to lock carbon away as solid carbonate minerals, and how grain size, temperature and moisture each accelerate that reaction.

🎮 How to Use

Choose a rock type, crush it finer, warm it up and add rainfall to speed the reaction. Watch the reaction-rate multiplier and cumulative CO₂-captured counter respond as grains whiten with carbonate.

💡 Did You Know?

Iceland's Carbfix project injects CO₂-charged water into basalt formations and finds over 95% mineralises into solid rock within about two years — remarkably fast for a process that normally takes millennia.

⚙ Under the hood

volcanoescarbon-captureweatheringmineralsgeochemistryclimate-changeThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install