Astrophysics (Index)About

silicate weathering feedback

(feedback mechanism stabilizing carbon in Earth atmosphere)

Silicate weathering feedback is a mechanism theorized to provide long-term stabilization of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth atmosphere, and thus Earth's temperature. Weathering when rain falls on rocks binds carbon into silicates (carbon-silicon-oxygen compounds) doing this more when there's more rain, as can be caused by higher temperature, which, in turn reduces CO2 in the atmosphere, thereby reducing the greenhouse effect, allowing temperatures to fall. It constitutes a slow negative feedback regarding temperature, one of the factors pushing toward stability. The feedback would occur on the order of half a million years after such a change in weather.


(chemistry,carbon,silicon,oxygen,geophysics,theory)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonate-silicate_cycle
https://sites.google.com/site/jeremycaves/research/silicate-weathering-feedback
https://courses.seas.harvard.edu/climate/eli/Courses/EPS281r/Sources/Silicate-weathering-and-CO2/James-Walker-Hays-1981.pdf
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/343/6178/1502
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017JF004346
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2014GB005054

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