Joshi, M, Mills, B orcid.org/0000-0002-9141-0931 and Johnson, M (2019) A capacitor‐discharge mechanism to explain the timing of orogeny‐related global glaciations. Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (14). pp. 8347-8354. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
Over geological timescales, mountain building or orogenesis is associated with increased weathering, the drawdown of atmospheric CO2, and global cooling. However, a multimillion‐year delay appears to exist between peaks in low‐latitude mountain uplift and the maximum extent of Phanerozoic glaciation, implying a more complex causal relationship between the two. Here we show that global silicate weathering can be modulated by orogeny in three distinct phases. High, young mountain belts experience preferential precipitation and the highest erosion. As mountains are denuded, precipitation decreases, but runoff temperature rises, sharply increasing chemical weathering potential and CO2 drawdown. In the final phase, erosion and weathering are throttled by flatter topography. We conclude that orogeny acts as a capacitor in the climate system, granting the potential for intense transient CO2 drawdown when mountain ranges are denuded; the mechanism suggests such a scenario potentially happening 10‐50 million years in the future.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Weathering; paleoclimate; climate; phanerozoic; CO2 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Earth Surface Science Institute (ESSI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC NE/S009663/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Jul 2019 14:37 |
Last Modified: | 26 Jul 2020 00:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2019GL083368 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:149032 |