Researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford have shown that weathering of rocks in the Canadian Arctic will accelerate with rising temperatures, triggering a positive feedback loop that will release more and more CO2 to the atmosphere.
Researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford have shown that weathering of rocks in the Canadian Arctic will accelerate with rising temperatures, triggering a positive feedback loop that will release more and more CO2 to the atmosphere. The findings have been published this week in the journal Science Advances.
For sensitive regions such as the Arctic, where surface air temperatures are warming nearly four times faster than the global average, it is particularly crucial to understand the potential contribution of atmospheric CO2 from weathering. One pathway happens when certain minerals and rocks react with oxygen in the atmosphere, releasing CO2 via a series of chemical reactions. For instance, the weathering of sulfide minerals (e.g., ‘fool’s gold’) makes acid which causes CO2 to release from other rock minerals nearby.
In Arctic permafrost, these minerals are being exposed as the ground thaws due to rising temperatures, which could act as a positive feedback loop to accelerate climate change. Up to now, however, it has been largely unknown how this reaction will respond to temperature change and how much extra CO2 could be released.
Read more at University of Oxford
Image: Thaw slump on the Peel Plateau, which exposes sulfide and carbonate minerals in glacial sediments to surface weathering reactions in lower slope regions with relict ice (Credit: Suzanne Tank)
