Strong climate and tectonic control on plagioclase weathering in granitic terrain     

C. Rasmussen  S. Brantley  D. deB. Richter  A. Blum  J. Dixon  A.F. White 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》2011,301(3-4):521-530

Investigations to understand linkages among climate, erosion and weathering are central to quantifying landscape evolution. We approach these linkages through synthesis of regolith data for granitic terrain compiled with respect to climate, geochemistry, and denudation rates for low sloping upland profiles. Focusing on Na as a proxy for plagioclase weathering, we quantified regolith Na depletion, Na mass loss, and the relative partitioning of denudation to physical and chemical contributions. The depth and magnitude of regolith Na depletion increased continuously with increasing water availability, except for locations with mean annual temperature < 5 °C that exhibited little Na depletion, and locations with physical erosion rates < 20 g m^? 2 yr^? 1 that exhibited deep and complete regolith Na depletion. Surface Na depletion also tended to decrease with increasing physical erosion. Depth-integrated Na mass loss and regolith depth were both three orders of magnitude greater in the fully depleted, low erosion rate sites relative to other locations. These locations exhibited strong erosion-limitation of Na chemical weathering rates based on correlation of Na chemical weathering rate to total Na denudation. Sodium weathering rates in cool locations with positive annual water balance were strongly correlated to total Na denudation and precipitation, and exhibited an average apparent activation energy (Ea) of 69 kJ mol^? 1 Na. The remaining water-limited locations exhibited kinetic limitation of Na weathering rates with an Ea of 136 kJ mol^? 1 Na, roughly equivalent to the sum of laboratory measures of Ea and dissolution reaction enthalpy for albite. Water availability is suggested as the dominant factor limiting rate kinetics in the water-limited systems. Together, these data demonstrate marked transitions and nonlinearity in how climate and tectonics correlate to plagioclase chemical weathering and Na mass loss.  相似文献   

Arsenic in sediments, groundwater, and streamwater of a glauconitic Coastal Plain terrain, New Jersey, USA—Chemical “fingerprints” for geogenic and anthropogenic sources     

Julia L. Barringer  Pamela A. Reilly  Dennis D. Eberl  Alex E. Blum  Jennifer L. Bonin  Robert Rosman  Barbara Hirst  Marzooq Alebus  Kimberly Cenno  Miroslawa Gorska 《Applied Geochemistry》2011,26(5):763-776

Glauconite-bearing deposits are found worldwide, but As levels have been determined for relatively few. The As content of glauconites in sediments of the Inner Coastal Plain of New Jersey can exceed 100 mg/kg, and total As concentrations (up to 5.95 μg/L) found historically and recently in streamwaters exceed the State standard. In a major watershed of the Inner Coastal Plain, chemical “fingerprints” were developed for streambed sediments and groundwater to identify contributions of As to the watershed from geologic and anthropogenic sources. The fingerprint for streambed sediments, which included Be, Cr, Fe and V, indicated that As was predominantly of geologic origin. High concentrations of dissolved organic C, nutrients (and Cl⁻) in shallow groundwater indicated anthropogenic inputs that provided an environment where microbial activity released As from minerals to groundwater discharging to the stream. Particulates in streamwater during high flow constituted most of the As load; the chemical patterns for these particulates resembled the geologic fingerprint of the streambed sediments. The As/Cr ratio of these suspended particles likely indicates they derived not only from runoff, but from groundwater inputs, because As contributed by groundwater is sequestered on streambed sediments. Agricultural inputs of As were not clearly identified, although chemical characteristics of some sediments indicated vehicle-related inputs of metals. Sediment sampling during dry and wet years showed that, under differing hydrologic conditions, local anthropogenic fingerprints could be obscured but the geologic fingerprint, indicating glauconitic sediments as an As source, was robust.  相似文献   

Superrotation of the thermosphere by global deposition of meteoroids?     

Peter W. Blum  David W. Hughes  Klaus G.H. Schuchardt 《Planetary and Space Science》1975,23(5):892-896

Mitra has suggested that the Superrotation of the upper atmosphere is caused by a deposition of meteoroids. The meteoroids are assumed to impart to the atmosphere the excess of their orbital angular momentum per unit mass over the Earth's angular momentum per unit mass. The process is to take place in the height region above 150 km. Only above this height is a Superrotation of the atmosphere observed. In this report the forces that tend to make the atmosphere corotate with the Earth are analysed. It is shown that the most important of these forces is ion drag, and not viscous drag as postulated by Mitra. As the net angular spin momentum imparted by the meteoroids seems to be less than Mitra's estimate and its main part is applied to the atmosphere at altitudes much lower than 150 km, the hypothesis that meteoroids provide a significant contribution to the Superrotation is rejected.  相似文献   

Chemical weathering of a marine terrace chronosequence, Santa Cruz, California I: Interpreting rates and controls based on soil concentration-depth profiles     

Art F. White  Marjorie S. Schulz  Alex E. Blum  Suzanne P. Anderson 《Geochimica et cosmochimica acta》2008,72(1):36-68

The spatial and temporal changes in element and mineral concentrations in regolith profiles in a chronosequence developed on marine terraces along coastal California are interpreted in terms of chemical weathering rates and processes. In regoliths up to 15 m deep and 226 kyrs old, quartz-normalized mass transfer coefficients indicate non-stoichiometric preferential release of Sr > Ca > Na from plagioclase along with lesser amounts of K, Rb and Ba derived from K-feldspar. Smectite weathering results in the loss of Mg and concurrent incorporation of Al and Fe into secondary kaolinite and Fe-oxides in shallow argillic horizons. Elemental losses from weathering of the Santa Cruz terraces fall within the range of those for other marine terraces along the Pacific Coast of North America.Residual amounts of plagioclase and K-feldspar decrease with terrace depth and increasing age. The gradient of the weathering profile b_s is defined by the ratio of the weathering rate, R to the velocity at which the profile penetrates into the protolith. A spreadsheet calculator further refines profile geometries, demonstrating that the non-linear regions at low residual feldspar concentrations at shallow depth are dominated by exponential changes in mineral surface-to-volume ratios and at high residual feldspar concentrations, at greater depth, by the approach to thermodynamic saturation. These parameters are of secondary importance to the fluid flux q_h, which in thermodynamically saturated pore water, controls the weathering velocity and mineral losses from the profiles. Long-term fluid fluxes required to reproduce the feldspar weathering profiles are in agreement with contemporary values based on solute Cl balances (q_h = 0.025-0.17 m yr⁻¹).During saturation-controlled and solute-limited weathering, the greater loss of plagioclase relative to K-feldspar is dependent on the large difference in their respective solubilities instead of the small difference between their respective reaction kinetics. The steady-state weathering rate under such conditions is defined as