Enhanced Weathering

The pathway Enhanced weathering (EW) accelerates a chemical reaction that the Earth already runs at geological pace: the dissolution of silicate rocks by carbonic acid in rainwater. When fast-weathering rocks like basalt, olivine, or wollastonite are crushed to fine particles and spread — usually on cropland, sometimes in rivers, forests, or mine pits — the surface area available for reaction increases by orders of magnitude. CO₂ dissolved in soil water reacts with the minerals, producing dissolved bicarbonate ions that drain through soils to groundwater and eventually the ocean, where the carbon is stored on timescales of 10,000 to 100,000+ years. That long-tailed durability is why EW sits alongside direct air capture and mineralization in most “durable CDR” portfolios, even though it borrows infrastructure (quarries, ag spreaders) from existing industries. ...

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