A professor in Oman has come up with a discovery that promises a breakthrough solution to the issue of carbon emissions on a global level: a rock commonly found just under the crust of the earth could soak up the planet’s entire carbon dioxide emissions, even without being mined.

Subhi Nasr, Director of Earth Science Research Centre at Sultan Qaboos University, says that when the peridotite rock — made up mostly of silicate minerals olivine and pyroxene — reacts with carbon dioxide, it converts the gas into calcite, a solid mineral.

This interaction only requires that holes be drilled into the peridotite rock.

Oman is one of the few places where the rock appears on the earth’s surface. It also boasts the largest such rock formation in the world stretching more than 600 kilometres, with a width of 150 kilometres and a depth of 3 kilometres.

“Peroditite absorbs 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year in Oman,” Khalid Al Hashmi, a geologist