MQ Safety Net: Mechanistic controls of carbon cycling in sediments through geologic time

This project aims to identify the mechanisms controlling organic carbon burial in sediments using new microbeam technology designed to directly view and quantify the nanometer scale particles comprising these deposits.
Carbon burial plays the key role in moderating climate variability and oxygenating Earth’s atmosphere as well as serving as the primary source of commercial hydrocarbons. An outcome of this project will be to determine the
range of controls and feedbacks responsible for episodic sequestration of organic carbon in the geologic record. Benefits will include identification of microscale rock properties that control hydrocarbon extraction from unconventional reservoirs, reducing exploration risk in Australian basins.