Rapid soil production and weathering in the Southern Alps, New Zealand
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Date
2014-02-07
Type
Journal Article
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Fields of Research
ANZSRC::0503 Soil Sciences, ANZSRC::050304 Soil Chemistry (excl. Carbon Sequestration Science), ANZSRC::050305 Soil Physics, ANZSRC::050302 Land Capability and Soil Degradation, ANZSRC::0403 Geology, ANZSRC::040313 Tectonics, ANZSRC::0401 Atmospheric Sciences, ANZSRC::040105 Climatology (excl. Climate Change Processes)
Abstract
Evaluating conflicting theories about the influence of mountains on carbon dioxide cycling and climate requires understanding weathering fluxes from tectonically uplifting landscapes. The lack of soil production and weathering rate measurements in Earth's most rapidly uplifting mountains has made it difficult to determine whether weathering rates increase or decline in response to rapid erosion. Beryllium-10 concentrations in soils from the western Southern Alps, New Zealand, demonstrate that soil is produced from bedrock more rapidly than previously recognized, at rates up to 2.5 millimeters per year. Weathering intensity data further indicate that soil chemical denudation rates increase proportionally with erosion rates. These high weathering rates support the view that mountains play a key role in global-scale chemical weathering and thus have potentially important implications for the global carbon cycle.
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