"Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement" or "Enhanced Weathering" are the ideas to counteract climate change by accelerating natural CO2-Absorption that occurs during the chemical weathering of volcanic rocks. Acceleration can be achieved by grinding the rock to fine powder and distributing it over agricultural land or the oceans. Chemical weathering reactions bind atmospheric CO2 and store it in the oceans, where it cannot contribute to climate change anymore. However, such Enhanced Weathering would inevitably lead to a perturbation of the oceans with a range of rock mineral dissolution products, such as silicate or trace metals.

OAE.Australia explores the CO2 absorption efficacy, the long-term storage potential, and the environmental side-effects of these climate intervention methods.

A more in depth analysis of the approach and its implications for open ocean ecosystems around Australia and globally can be found in the scientific paper on the left (Click on the paper and you will be guided to the full article).