The recent hydrothermal explosion at Yellowstone National Park (see online article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/yellowstone-update-hydrothermal-explosions-cause-explained/ar-BB1qxK9i) caused me to start wondering what humans do that might increase movement of magma and result in seismic effects like earthquakes and eruptions. Here in Colorado, we experienced some possibly fracking-linked earthquakes in southeast Colorado about eight years ago.
I came across an interesting study titled "Nano-volcanic Eruption of Silver" (online at https://www.nature.com/articles/srep34769):
Here we report a novel phenomenon of Ag nano-volcanic eruption that is caused by interactions between Ag and oxygen (O). It involves grain boundary liquation, the ejection of transient Ag-O fluids through grain boundaries, and the decomposition of Ag-O fluids into O2 gas and suspended Ag and Ag2O clusters.
It looks like interactions between silver and oxygen can cause mini-eruptions, and that those can occur at relatively low temperatures (geologically speaking) if the silver can't crystallize out (nucleate) as Ag2O.
However, if the Ag2O phase could not nucleate, then the meta-stable melting points of fcc-(Ag), which are the meta-stable equilibria between the fcc-(Ag) and liquid phases, would fall drastically to low temperatures.
(online at https://www.nature.com/articles/srep34769)
I think, per this chemistry article on silver nanoplates -
(online at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja2080345)
- that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) can prevent Ag2O from crystallizing because it keeps the silver dissolved.
Perhaps in the process of returning fracking wastewater underground into disposal wells--the disposal wells have already been linked to earthquakes (see https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/07/12/more-on-the-science-linking-fracking-disposal-wells-to-earthquakes/)--hydrogen peroxide is sometimes being injected into areas with silver and causing a chain reaction that results in seismic events. If southeastern Colorado, a state with an important silver mining history, had any significant magma near the surface, maybe we might have even seen a little volcanic activity eight years ago!
Maybe we don't even need a lot of hydrogen peroxide present in the fracking wastewater. Perhaps there is sometimes something else in fracking wastewater that increases the amount of hydrogen peroxide later down at the bottom of the wastewater wells. Hydrogen peroxide can be made from just air, water, and electricity* given the right carrier molecule:
In this new process, scientists used electricity to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen, and the hydrogen then reacts with a “carrier” molecule. This molecule — a compound called anthroquinone, in these initial experiments — is then introduced into a separate reaction chamber where it meets with oxygen taken from the outside air, and a pair of hydrogen atoms binds to an oxygen molecule (O2) to form the hydrogen peroxide. In the process, the carrier molecule is restored to its original state and returns to carry out the cycle all over again, so none of this material is consumed.
(see "Producing hydrogen peroxide continuously from just air, water, and electricity," 2019, online athttps://www.techexplorist.com/producing-hydrogen-peroxide-continuously-just-air-water-electricity/27255/)
Anthroquinone is a small molecule:
While it is hard to dissolve anthroquinone into water, it is soluble in hot organic solvents; fracking wastewater contains a lot of organic molecules (see https://new.nsf.gov/news/recent-research-analyzes-chemical-composition).
I hypothesize that anthroquinone or a similar H2O2-producing carrier molecule might be present in some fracking wastewater and so contributing to seismic activity when introduced into silver-containing rocks deep underground via disposal wells.
* Electricity is presumably present deep underground: "In the mantle, the voltage difference is likely caused by movement of melts and fluids with high electrical conductivity, as well as other redox reactions – although little is known about how strong these electric fields might be." See "Electric fields deep in Earth’s mantle helps diamond crystallise," 2021, online at https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/electric-fields-deep-in-earths-mantle-helps-diamond-crystallise/4013130.article.
No comments:
Post a Comment