Fate of fossil fuel CO2 in geologic time

2005/09/01 by David Archer · 14 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis #Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena

paper · pdf · doi:10.1029/2004jc002625

openalex publication_date 2005/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

A model of the ocean and seafloor carbon cycle is subjected to injection of new CO 2 pulses of varying sizes to estimate the resident atmospheric fraction over the coming 100 kyr. The model is used to separate the processes of air‐sea equilibrium, an ocean temperature feedback, CaCO 3 compensation, and silicate weathering on the residual anthropogenic pCO 2 in the atmosphere at 1, 10, and 100 kyr. The mean lifetime of anthropogenic CO 2 is dominated by the long tail, resulting in a range of 30–35 kyr. The long lifetime of fossil fuel carbon release implies that the anthropogenic climate perturbation may have time to interact with ice sheets, methane clathrate deposits, and glacial/interglacial climate dynamics.

Citations

• GEOCARB II; a revised model of atmospheric CO 2 over Phanerozoic time
• The Anthropogenic Greenhouse Era Began Thousands of Years Ago

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