Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere initial carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the young Earth was produced by volcanic activity, modern volcanic activity releases only 130 to 230 megatonnes of carbon dioxide each year. These natural sources are nearly balanced by natural sinks, physical and biological processes which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For example, some is directly removed from the atmosphere by land plants for photosynthesis and it is soluble in water forming carbonic acid. There is a large natural flux of into and out of the biosphere and oceans. In the pre-industrial era these fluxes were largely in balance. Currently about 57%
Ocean storage of carbon dioxide Ocean storage of carbon dioxide Ocean storage of carbon dioxide (CO) is a method of carbon sequestration. The concept of storing carbon dioxide in the ocean was first proposed by Italian physicist Cesare Marchetti in his 1976 paper "On Geoengineering and the carbon dioxide Problem." Since then, the concept of sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide in the world's oceans has been investigated by scientists, engineers, and environmental activists. 39,000 GtC currently reside in the oceans while only 750 GtC are in the atmosphere. Of the 1300 Gt carbon dioxide from anthropogenic emissions over the last 200 years, about 38% of that