wAbstract
@Soils developed over the last 10-13 ky on Peoria loess along
a transect parallel to the Mississippi River spanning `1600 km
from north to south were investigated to estimate the effects
of climate on rates of chemical weathering. In the 22 soils, Na
concentrations generally decreased from parent composition to
the surface, defining depletion profiles that document the weathering
of plagioclase. The integrated fraction of Na (f) dissolved from
each profile varied from `0 in the north to 26 in the south.
This variation is attributed to an increase in average precipitation
and temperature from the north (today's average values: 0.5 m/y,
7.5) to the south (1.2 m/y, 20.3). We used the output from the
GENESIS v2 Global Climate Model (GCM) to calculate the mean annual
temperature, precipitation, and porefluid advection velocity,
v, through the soils for three time points during the last 13,000
y in order to quantify the effect of temperature on Na depletion.
To interpret the soils quantitatively, the Na concentration-depth
profiles were fit to a sigmoidal model equation that yielded three
fit parameters: (i) a lumped kinetic parameter related to the
reaction front thickness (K), (ii) the Na concentration in soil
at the surface (Cz=0), and (iii) the Na concentration
at depth in the parent (C0). The product
Kv, the fraction f, and the concentration
difference, C0-Cz=0,
were all observed to vary with temperature along the transect.
According to the deviation and assumption of the sigmoidal model,
these values are all functionally related to the dissolution rate
constant of albite. The variation in temperature can be explained
for Kv and (C0-Cz=0) based on laboratory values of the activation
energy, Ea, for albite dissolution. In contrast,
for the case of f, the temperature dependence is larger than Ea because it incorporates contributions from both
Ea and the reaction enthalpy, ขH, of albite
dissolution. Furthermore, the temperature dependence determined
from C0-Cz=0 yields
the best estimate of activation energy for albite dissolution,
Ea75}14 kJ/mol, because it is not dependent
upon the assumptions of soil texture. Such quantitative interpretations
of soil profiles will be useful in predicting the effects of climate
on soil chemistry.
Keywords: Loess; Feldspar; Weathering kinetics; Climosequence;
Activation energy; Global Climate Modelx
1. Introduction
2. Loess soils
3. X-ray diffraction analysis
4. Parent composition and immobile elements
5. Element-depth profiles
6. Profile fitting
7. Climate modeling
8. Temperature dependence of K
9. Model sensitivity and discussion
10. Fractional depletion
11. Albite concentration at soil surface
12. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Appendix A. Supplementary data
References