Open AccessFate of fossil fuel CO 2 in geologic time
Author(s) -
Archer David
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2004jc002625
Subject(s) - interglacial , weathering , methane , carbon cycle , geology , silicate , environmental science , glacial period , atmosphere (unit) , seafloor spreading , atmospheric sciences , clathrate hydrate , oceanography , earth science , geomorphology , meteorology , ecosystem , chemistry , ecology , physics , organic chemistry , hydrate , biology
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.