Project description
Measuring and understanding the impact of tectonic CO2 emissions
Past climate changes and paleo-atmospheric CO2 variations were significantly impacted by geological processes. Deep carbon reservoirs persist and can be activated within the faulted lithosphere at continental rifts, creating pathways for substantial CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, research into their past climate impact and degassing has been hindered by inefficient measurement techniques, technologies and frameworks. The EU-funded EMERGE project aims to develop innovative solutions to address these challenges. These include the use of airborne drones for CO2 flux measurement, numerical modelling techniques to understand the geodynamic control on lithospheric CO2 transport, and the study and integration of data on past rifts and tectonic degassing.
Objective
Geological processes governed paleo-atmospheric CO2 variations and exerted major control on past climate change beyond the million-year time scale. Vast deep carbon reservoirs are known to be activated at continental rifts, where the faulted lithosphere provides CO2 pathways and where recent surveys detected massive CO2 emissions. However, progress in quantifying natural CO2 degassing and its impact on past climate is impeded for 3 reasons: (1) current CO2 flux measurement techniques require labourintensive field surveys that can cover only small areas; (2) a consistent framework uniting geodynamic processes and CO2 transport to the surface is missing; (3) past CO2 flux from rifts is difficult to quantify because compilations do not account for geodynamic characteristics.
EMERGE will enter uncharted territory by linking 3 innovative approaches. The project will: (1) advance airborne CO2 flux measurements via drones. Focusing on rifts in Kenya, Ethiopia, Czech Republic and Iceland, we will measure for the first time tectonic CO2 flux distributions of entire regions allowing unprecedented insight into subsurface CO2 pathways; (2) characterise geodynamic controls on lithospheric CO2 transport via novel numerical modelling techniques; and (3) integrate data of all known rifts since 540 million years ago to understand the role of tectonic degassing in shaping Earth’s climate through time.
Zooming in on the geosphere-atmosphere interface, this project integrates interdisciplinary ideas and methods from geodynamics, micrometeorology, petrology, and paleoclimatology. EMERGE may generate broad impact on scientific and societal level: dronebased CO2 flux measurements will be a game changer in understanding tectonic CO2 release at rifts and other plate boundaries worldwide. The methodological and scientific advances may be essential for establishing a solid baseline of tectonic CO2 emissions to accurately quantify controls on past and future climate change.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences palaeontology paleoclimatology
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering robotics autonomous robots drones
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology petrology
- social sciences political sciences government systems
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
14473 POTSDAM
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.