I Didn't Know!

It’s time! Many have already finalized their ‘getaway’ plans for the summer. Schools are closing the books for this teaching season and it’s finally warming up enough to get out and enjoy the outdoors.But for the ‘undecided’, brochures are being examined.

This has been a crazy spring and there’s reason to believe that summer will be “more of the same!”.
This year’s ‘Mother’s Day” found blizzard conditions with 24 inches of snow in South Dakota, tornadoes raging from Texas to Iowa, California residents  highly concerned about ongoing drought conditions, and the hurricane season will soon be underway from June to November in the east coast!.  So, where would you like to go?
 How about Yellowstone National Park? Personally, I’ve never been there and always wanted to visit the place. At least until I read the latest news...

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Everyone knows about “Old Faithful” and the numerous hot springs, but a recent scientific survey of the area has made some interesting discoveries.Yellowstone National Park is a wilderness recreation area atop a volcanic hot spot.There are close to two dozen

Beneath Yellowstone National Park

supervolcanoes around the world, but Yellowstone is the largest.The park’s fiery underground  is being fueled by a giant pulsating chamber of magma—molten and semi-molten rock and dissolved gases in an area  55 miles by 20 miles and 6 miles deep, according to the latest measurements in 2013. Geologists estimate that Yellowstone’s  growing magma pocket has now swelled and released once every 730,000 years or so.  The biggest Yellowstone explosion, about two million years ago, resulted in an eruption rated to have been 10,000 times as big as the 1980 Mount St . Helens eruption. That one destroyed  150 square miles of forest and killed 57 people!   I'm not sure I would like  to be camping in the area.

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Our weather conditions seem to be changing. Things are happening underground and

overhead. We can’t be held responsible for volcanic eruptions, but Mother Nature may be reacting to what we do to the air above! Our smokestacks and our constant need to chop down trees are polluting our atmosphere, causing nature’s air currents  to change their course. Way up north, there’s a floating tongue of ice that extends off the continent’s main
landmass - The Ross Ice Shelf-  that covers more than 197,000 square miles and is the largest ice shelf that has ever been discovered. In March of 2000, an ice chunk broke off  that was 170 miles long and 25 miles wide or roughly the size of the state of Connecticut. Scientists claim that if the entire ice sheet were to melt, it would raise global sea levels by about 16 feet. If that would happen, we would not be traveling to those sea-side resorts or hotels.

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 Greenhouse gas is the normal term for ‘trouble in our atmosphere’ and is accused, by many, to be causing alternations in our weather patterns.

 While pollution is being caused, there are byproducts that are beneficial. One of which is carbon dioxide (CO2) . This colorless,

odorless gas accused of air pollution is vital to plant life on earth is emitted from those active volcanoes, hot springs and geysers we love to visit. However, excess CO2  is also  being produced by burning wood, carbohydrates and major carbon and hydrocarbon-rich fossil fuels such as coal, peat, petroleum and natural gas. What to do about the excess?

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"Discoverer" of CO2 Jan Babtist van Helmont

Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont observed that when he burned charcoal in a closed vessel, the mass of the resulting ash was much less than that of the original charcoal. His interpretation was that the rest of the charcoal had been changed into an invisible substance he termed a "gas" or "wild spirit". What would we do without our charcoal grill?

Carbon dioxide is everywhere.Trees use it, we exhale it, plants need it, even mosquitoes seem to sense it! It’s an important greenhouse gas, but too much is too much . How do we control the volume of this important chemical output of something we actually need?

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Countries have been hard at work to solve this puzzle of “ How to control pollution and how to keep the world from overheating.” The United States along with other countries have been studying the problem, however critics as well as some corporations are reluctant to spend money to control the excesses. We, in the USA, are watching our over-seas neighbors and seeing some interesting studies and progress underway.

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 Norway is working on controlling emissions as well as actually storing CO2 for export and use!

Action is now been taken in western Norway to make  storage facilities cheaper and more efficient. Carbon dioxide has many uses and Norway will have this gas for sale when needed.Geologist Ine Gjeldvik of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate states: “This greenhouse gas (CO 2 ) can be captured, transported and injected into storage areas where it will not leak out and harm the

environment.” The process of‘capturing’ CO2 includes pressurizing the gas  to its liquid form which takes up less space.The liquid is then transported  to the ’storage well’ through pipelines or by ship.  Geologists constantly look for structures where dry wells were drilled (wells without traces of oil or gas), to see if they are suitable for storage, such as a dense rock formation  that envelops the reservoir into which they inject the liquid .  
These are called  sealing rocks,  often a dense shale with low or no porosity and no permeability. These rock areas found in Norway are said  to be ‘leakproof'. According to Statoil, ten million tons of CO2 have been injected into the Utsira Formation in Norway since the autumn of 1996. The NPD has led the work to confirm secure geological formations which can hold carbon dioxide volumes equal to Norway’s total emissions for 20 years. In many ways, CO2 storage is like oil recovery in reverse. Some greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for decades or even centuries, and therefore can affect the earth's energy balance over a long time period.

These gases can be detrimental to our health, so why would we try to store it for future use?

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  We use CO2 in many ways. Remember “Pop Rocks” popularity ‘back in the day’? A candy called Pop Rocks was pressurized with carbon dioxide gas. When placed in the mouth, it dissolved (just like other hard candy) and released  gas bubbles with an audible pop.
CO2 extinguishes flames, and  some fire extinguishers contain liquid carbon dioxide under pressure are effective in  extinguishes electrical fires. We all enjoy carbon dioxide  used to produce carbonated soft drinks and soda water.

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With this and more, Norway seems to have ‘an eye on the future’.

If you should decide to visit “Old Faithful” this summer, keep in mind that volcanoes and geysers emit carbon dioxide in great amounts into the air. 

Think of what we might do with that wasted CO2.  Norway knows.