VOLCANOES, MOUNTAINS, & CLIMATE: ASSESSING TECTONIC INFLUENCES ON THE LONG-TERM CARBON CYCLE
Earth’s historic transitions between icehouse and greenhouse climate states are largely influenced by changes in greenhouse compositions, particularly atmospheric CO2. The amount of carbon free to exchange amongst Earth’s surface reservoirs—the hydrosphere + atmosphere + biosphere—is governed by the long-term carbon cycle. Volcanic outgassing provides the principal source of CO2 to the atmosphere and silicate weathering serves as the major CO2 sink. In this talk I will discuss debates regarding how the relative contributions of the sources and sinks have changed throughout Earth’s history in response to changing tectonic processes. I will present and evaluate proxy data that track continental magmatism and chemical weathering processes in the context of icehouse-greenhouse transitions over the past ~750 million years, with particular emphasis on the Cryogenian Snowball events.
For Additional information: ryan00@hku.hk