The major drawback to natural mineral carbonation is its slow pace: normally, it takes thousands of years for rocks to react with sizable quantities of carbon dioxide. But scientists are experimenting with ways to speed the reaction up by dissolving carbon dioxide in water and injecting it into the rock, as well as capturing heat generated by the reaction to accelerate the process.

“It offers a way to permanently get rid of carbon dioxide emissions,” said Juerg Matter, a scientist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where a range of projects to tackle the issue is underway.