The Deep Carbon Observatory: A Ten-Year Quest to Study Carbon in Earth

摘要

1. Overview The Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) is a ten-year research program to investigate the quantities, movements, forms, and origins of carbon in Earth. More than 90% of Earth’s carbon may reside in the planet’s deep interior, and DCO’s overarching mission is to understand Earth’s entire carbon cycle—beyond the atmosphere, oceans, and shallow crustal environments, which have drawn most previous research attention—to include the deep carbon cycle [1,2]. A decade of focused research has led to major discoveries by DCO scientists on the physical, chemical, and biological roles of carbon in Earth.