『Abstract
The spatial and temporal changes in hydrology and pore water
elemental and 87Sr/86Sr compositions are
used to determine contemporary weathering rates in a 65- to 226-kyr-old
soil chronosequence formed from granitic sediments deposited on
marine terraces along coastal California. Soil moisture, tension
and saturation exhibit large seasonal variations in shallow soils
in response to a Mediterranean climate. These climate effects
are dampened in underlying argillic horizons that progressively
developed in older soils, and reached steady-state conditions
in unsaturated horizons extending to depths in excess of 15 m.
Hydraulic fluxes (qh), based on Cl mass balances,
vary from 0.06 to 0.22 m yr-1, resulting in fluid residence
times in the terraces of 10-24 yrs.
As expected for a coastal environment, the order of cation abundances
in soil pore waters is comparable to sea water, i.e., Na>Mg>Ca>K>Sr,
while the anion sequence Cl>NO3>HCO3>SO4 reflects modifying
effects of nutrient cycling in the grassland vegetation. Net Cl-corrected
solute Na, K and Si increase with depth, denoting inputs from
feldspar weathering. Solute 87Sr/86Sr ratios
exhibit progressive mixing of sea water-dominated precipitation
with inputs from less radiogenic plagioclase. While net Sr and
Ca concentrations are anomalously high in shallow soils due to
biological cycling, they decline with depth to low and/or negative
net concentrations. Ca/Mg, Sr/Mg and 87Sr/86Sr
solute and exchange ratios are similar in all the terraces, denoting
active exchange equilibration with selectivities close to unity
for both detrital smectite and secondary kaolinite. Large differences
in the magnitudes of the pore waters and exchange reservoirs result
in short-term buffering of the solute Ca, Sr, and Mg. Such buffering
over geologic time scales can not be sustained due to declining
inputs from residual plagioclase and smectite, implying periodic
resetting of the exchange reservoir such as by past vegetational
changes and/or climate.
Pore waters approach thermodynamic saturation with respect to
albite at depth in the younger terraces, indicating that weathering
rates ultimately become transport-limited and dependent on hydrologic
flux. Contemporary rates Rsolute are estimated
from linear Na and Si pore weathering gradients bsolute
such that
Rsoluite = qh/bsoluteβSv
where Sv is the volumetric surface area and
β is the stoichiometric coefficient. Plagioclase weathering rates
(0.38-2.8×10-15 mol m-2 s-1)
are comparable to those based on 87Sr/86Sr
mass balances and solid-state Na and Ca gradients using analogous
gradient approximations. In addition, contemporary solute gradients,
under transport-limited conditions, approximate long-term solid-state
gradients when normalized against the mass of protolith plagioclase
and its corresponding aqueous solubility. The multi-faceted weathering
analysis presented in this paper is perhaps the most comprehensive
yet applied to a single field study. Within uncertainties of the
methods used, present day weathering rates, based on solute characterizations,
are comparable to average long-term past rates as evidenced by
soil profiles.』
1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. Results
3.1. Precipitation inputs
3.2. Regolith hydrology
3.2.1. Soil moisture
3.2.2. Soil water tension
3.3. Solute chemistry
3.3.1. Solute Cl compositions
3.3.2. Solute Na distributions
3.3.3. Solute Ca and Sr distributions
3.3.4. 87Sr/86Sr distributions
3.3.5. Solute Mg distributions
3.3.6. Solute K distributions
3.3.7. Solute Si distributions
3.3.8. Aluminum and pH distributions
3.4. Mineral solubilities and saturation indices
3.4.1. Plagioclase
3.4.2. K-feldspar
3.4.3. Kaolinite
3.4.4. Gibbsite
3.5. Cation exchange
3.5.1. Cation exchange capacities
3.5.2. Exchange equilibrium
4. Discussion
4.1. Contemporary plagioclase weathering rates based on solute
Na and Si gradients
4.2. Determination of contemporary plagioclase weathering rates
based on solute 87Sr/86Sr gradients
4.3. Long-term elemental weathering rates based on solid-state
gradients
4.3.1. Determining solid-state weathering gradients
4.3.2. Determining solid-state weathering velocities and rates
4.4. Comparisons of contemporary and long-term weathering
4.4.1. Comparison of weathering gradients
4.4.2. Comparison of contemporary and long-term weathering rates
4.5. Inconsistencies in base cation weathering
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
References