BBC News –Scientists think they have found a smart way to constrain¹ carbon dioxide emissions² - just turn them to stone. The researchers report an experiment in Iceland where they have pumped CO2 and water underground into volcanic³ rock. Reactions with the minerals in the deep basalts convert the carbon dioxide to a stable, immobile chalky solid.

BBC新闻 – 科学家认为，他们发现了一种遏制二氧化碳排放的聪明方法 – 把它们变成石头。研究人员报告了在冰岛做的一次实验，他们把二氧化碳和地下水泵入火山岩。与地下深处玄武岩中的矿物质发生的反应，把二氧化碳转化成了稳定不动的白垩状固体。

Even more encouraging, the team writes in Science magazine, is the speed at which this process occurs: on the order of months. "Of our 220 tonnes of injected CO2, 95% was converted to limestone⁴ in less than two years," said lead author Juerg Matter from Southampton University, UK.

该团队在《科学》杂志发表报告说，更鼓舞人心的是这个过程发生的速度：大约几个月。“我们注入的220吨二氧化碳中，95%不到两年就转化成了石灰岩。”报告的主要作者，来自英国南安普顿大学的马特说。

With carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere marching ever upwards⁵ and warming the planet, researchers are keen to investigate so called "carbon capture and storage" (CCS) solutions.

随着大气中的二氧化碳浓度持续上升，令地球升温，研究人员热衷于探讨所谓的“碳捕捉与封存”（CCS）解决方案。

Previous experiments have seen pure CO2 injected into sandstone, or deep, salty aquifers⁶. Chosen sites - which have included disused oil and gas wells - have relied on layers of impermeable⁷ capping rocks to hold down the carbon dioxide. But the fear is always that the CO2 could find a way to leak back out into the atmosphere.

此前的实验是把纯二氧化碳注入砂岩，或深部咸水层。废弃的油井和气井等中选场地依靠不透水的盖层岩石地层压缩二氧化碳。但一直令人担心的是，二氧化碳可能夺路而出，回漏到大气中。

Working with a geothermal power plant, the Carbfix project on Iceland combined the waste CO2 with water to make a slightly acidic liquid that was then sent hundreds of metres down into the volcanic basalts that make up so much of the North Atlantic island.

在冰岛进行的这个固碳项目与一座地热电站合作，把二氧化碳废气与水结合，制成弱酸性液体，然后输送到地下几百米的火山玄武岩 - 这些岩石在这座北大西洋岛国是如此丰富。

The low pH water (3.2) worked to dissolve the calcium⁸ and magnesium⁹ ions in the basalts, which then reacted with the carbon dioxide to make calcium and magnesium carbonates. Cores drilled into the experimental site pulled up rock with the tell-tale white carbonates occupying the pore spaces.

PH值3.2的酸性水分解玄武岩中的钙镁离子，然后与二氧化碳发生反应，产生碳酸钙和碳酸镁。从实验地点钻探岩心取出岩石，明显可见白色的碳酸盐占据了孔隙空间。

The researchers also tagged the CO2 with carbon-14, a radioactive form of the element. In this way, they were able to tell if any of the injected CO2 was leaking back to the surface or finding its way out through a distant watercourse. No such escape was detected.

研究人员还用碳元素的放射性形式碳14标记二氧化碳。用这种方法，他们能够断定注入的二氧化碳是否回漏到表层，或通过长距离水道找到了出路。但并未探测到这种逃逸。

"This means that we can pump down large amounts of CO2 and store it in a very safe way over a very short period of time," said study co-author Martin Stute from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory¹⁰, US.

“这意味着我们可在非常短的时间内把大量二氧化碳泵入地下，用非常安全的方式封存它。”研究报告的共同作者，来自美国哥伦比亚大学拉蒙.多哈提地球观测站的司徒特说。