Carbon Storage in Mafic Rocks

The Geological CO2 Storage (GCS) is proposed as a permanent solution to the increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. One promising GCS strategy is CO2 mineralization, the conversion of gaseous CO2 into carbonate minerals through chemical reaction with rocks rich in Mg2+ and Ca2+. Basaltic rocks, because of their widespread occurrence, high Mg, Ca content, have received great attention as an ideal reservoir for CO2 storage.

To ensure the safe implementation of CO2 mineralization using basalt on large scale, the deformation behavior of basalt needs to be well studied. Currently, there are still several gaps in our understanding of basaltic rock deformation at conditions relevant for CO2 storage. For example, at crustal conditions, rocks often experience time-dependent brittle deformation known as brittle creep, which allows rocks to fail under a constant stress that is well below their short-term strength. The long-term deformation behavior of reservoir rocks is related to brittle creep; however, there are few existing studies focusing on the brittle creep behavior of basalt and none focusing on how carbonate alteration affects this process.