PNAS/McGill University - Human Activity (CO2 Emissions) Now Dissolving The Seafloor

[hatrack]

Carbon emissions are acidifying the ocean so quickly that the seafloor is disintegrating. According to a study published this week in PNAS , this sets off a feedback loop that acidifies the ocean even more quickly, a process that is already killing off foundational marine life species such as coral and threatening the balance of all ocean ecosystems on which we depend.

“Our study confirms that humans are now a geological force capable of impacting the Earth’s system, like a super-volcano or a meteoritic impact,” Olivier Sulpis, an earth science researcher at McGill University and lead author on the study, said to Motherboard in an email. The root of the problem is that a foundational chemical reaction that keeps the oceans at pH levels that are conducive to life is being thrown out of whack.

Calcium carbonate, or calcite, lines the ocean floor. When calcite combines with carbon dioxide and water, the reaction produces calcium ions and bicarbonate ions. Because of this, the surrounding water becomes less acidic over long periods of time—think tens to thousands of years. But when you throw more carbon dioxide into the equation, all of the seafloor calcite starts to get used up to power these reactions in extremely large amounts, meaning that the ocean floor is dissolving. Now, there’s not enough calcite but more carbon dioxide than ever, driving up acidity levels.

EDIT

Just how bad is the damage? According to the study, in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, adjacent to Europe, 40 to 100 percent of the seafloor has been dissolved at the most severe locations. Supis told Motherboard in an email that the dissolution is worst in the northwest Atlantic because the ocean currents corral human-made carbon dioxide to the region in massive quantities. The more carbon dioxide, the more difficult it is for calcium carbonate to react and dissolve the molecule.

EDIT

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/d3qaek/the-seafloor-is-dissolving-because-climate-change?fbclid=IwAR2KlkP4MeakBnBeZkMSO_Q-ZVBRp1ZPMWz2EIJCI6J8fKStRSyX_gIM0-w

[2naSalit]

1. Here we go...

[defacto7]

2. Through this and other chemical processes

the ocean has ended most life on earth several times in geological history spurred on both by catastrophic events and through global warming sequences. Once it starts it takes very little time to make oxygen breathing life suffocate. I've written about this more than once and in detail on this site over the years with little reaction. I don't wish to rehash it again but hey, here we are.

The ocean gave us life. It can more easily take it away.