In late 2023, MIT geologists discovered a new type of clay mineral known as smectite. Found on the seafloor, the mineral has the potential to help sequester carbon in the long term. Examined at the microscopic level, each grain of clay has a structure not unlike an accordion’s folds. These spaces are effective in trapping and storing organic carbon, often for millions of years.
The MIT team determined that these clays result from plate tectonics, the process of continental plates and oceanic crusts converging and pushing rocks from deep under the earth’s surface upward. Over the eons, rocks that surface form smectite and settle to the seafloor. The minerals trap tiny dead organisms within their intricate folds. This prevents microbes from consuming the organic carbon and expelling in into the atmosphere as CO2.
As one MIT researcher describes it, smectite provides a long-term buffer against global warming, as it sequesters significant amounts of CO2: “these unassuming clay minerals have wide-ranging implications for the habitability of planets.” The clays may even have applications in helping offset recent CO2 emissions associated with global warming.
