Note to Science: Please be careful with the Oregon Coast.

There are few places I love as much as the Oregon coast. It's where I first saw the ocean. It's where I spent countless hours surfing with my father and brothers. It's where we had my grandmother's memorial service and my high school graduation party. So, like many places on this beautiful planet, it evokes a very strong emotional response for me.


So this post from Plenty Magazine's cutting edge blog scared me:

An underwater volcanic ridge off the coast of Washington and Oregon represents a potentially optimal site for ditching carbon dioxide, a group of Columbia University earth scientists has concluded. For one, the underwater basalt – or dried lava spewed by a subsea volcano – has the unique property that it could help convert injected CO₂ into calcium carbonate, which is basically chalk. Storing it as a solid adds assurance that the carbon dioxide won’t escape and leak into the atmosphere.

Now, I will fully accept that I don't know as much as I should about carbon storage, deep sea geology, how gravity keeps a gas under water etc... I just want to post something expressing my concern over the idea of turning such an amazing place into the nation's CO2 Yucca Mountain.

And I would welcome comments from readers who know more than me and may inform my thoughts on this.