The skin of the Earth is the color of tar,
Ridged, freshly healed like the seams of a scar.
Through salt-spattered sky, a gray-winged gull sails;
Steam gently rises, the island exhales.
A power plant rests on porous basalt,
In spaces beneath, a dark final vault.
Carbon is cached with a strong crystal lock,
Ashes to ashes, rock back to rock.
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Further reading:
In a First, Iceland Power Plant Turns Carbon Emissions to Stone, K. Krajick, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Rapid carbon mineralization for permanent disposal of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, Matter et al., Science
Scientists Turn Carbon Dioxide Emissions into Stone, Magill, Climate Central
This is one in a series of posts by Katherine Allen, a researcher in geochemistry and paleoclimate at the School of Earth & Climate Sciences at the University of Maine.
