wAbstract
@Taiwan is a typical active orogenic belt situated at the collision
boundary between the Eurasian Continental Plate and the Philippine
Sea Plate. Dissolved major and trace constituents, as well as
Sr and Sr isotopes in river waters collected from the Danshuei
River basin in northern Taiwan have been studied to evaluate chemical
weathering processes. The results of principal component analysis
show that the ion sources in these river waters can be categorized
into 3 major components: chemical weathering, seasalt contribution
and local anthropogenic input. The chemical weathering is the
most dominant factor that contributes about 85 of total variances.
Significantly increased Na/Cl and Ca/Cl, as well 87Sr/86Sr,
were observed in most upper stream samples. The Na/Cl and Ca/Cl
ratios in the Dahan Stream, however, are much higher than the
Shindien Stream. Even though average rainfall is stronger in the
Shindien drainage basin, chemical evidence from river waters supports
less intense weathering in the region. Selective dissolution of
secondary calcites explains the observed high Ca/Cl, Sr/Cl and
Ca/Na in the Dahan Stream. These results highlight the potential
importance of tectonic factors, such as uplift and physical erosion
in studying chemical weathering in an active orogenic belt.
@The variations of 87Sr/86Sr in the Danshuei
River are quite large, reflecting some strata that released Sr.
Most of the upstream waters exhibit more radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr,
0.713243-0.714338, due to weathering of ambient low-grade metamorphic
rocks, 0.71678-0.72216. The distributions of Cl, Sr and 87Sr/86Sr
in the main stream were affected by somewhat conservative mixing
with sources varying between ambient rocks and seasalt. In the
upper Dahan Stream, heavy 87Sr/86Sr ratios
were coincident with large deviations of Na/Cl from the average
seawater value, as high as 40. The degree of chemical weathering
in ambient rocks plays a dominant role in affecting the distribution
of Sr and 87Sr/86Sr in the Danshuei River.
This isotopic characteristic makes 87Sr/86Sr
an invaluable tracer for studying source mixing, migration pathways
and chemical weathering in an active orogenic belt.x
1. Introduction
2. Study area
3. Sampling and chemical analysis
4. Results and discussion
@4.1. Major ion compositions
@4.2. Effects of chemical weathering
@4.3. Contribution of lithology and physical erosion rate
@4.4. Strontium ion concentration and isotope ratio
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgement
References