18 Surface Processes Across the Solar System
This session welcomes abstracts on any aspect of planetary geomorphology, including but not restricted to: Earth analogues, laboratory experiments, numerical models, planetary comparison, mapping, in situ data, or remote sensing studies.
Monday, 23 March 2026
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
CCC, Room 25
Carbonation Reactions at Planetary Surfaces Over Time
Paper number: 18-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:40 AM – 11:00 AM
Authors
Abstract
The passive drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide relentlessly alters surface and subsurface rocks and waters, while exerting controls on atmospheric chemistry over long time scales. On all silicate planetary bodies, surface silicate minerals react with atmospheric gases. On Earth, such reactions have been critical to maintaining a habitable planetary surface, and may have important roles to play in restorative/regenerative action in surface environments in the future. From an applied perspective, deliberate application of selected minerals to land surfaces may accelerate CO2 drawdown in important, near future timeframes. Here I review the interactions of common minerals with CO2 in order to track their reaction paths and expected CO2 mineralization, and develop 5 case studies of minerals important to CO2 regulation on planetary surfaces in our Solar System (olivine, wollastonite, albite, anorthite, calcite). The prospect of utilizing mineral amendments to planetary surface soils for purposes of soil regeneration and the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 will be explored, and caveats relating to the durability of neoformed carbonates and the bioenergetics of carbon(ate)-utilizing microbial metabolisms will be considered.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 2
doi: 10.1130/abs/2026NE-411395
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