The fluvial geochemistry of the rivers of Eastern Siberia: III. Tributaries of the Lena and Anabar draining the basement terrain of the Siberian Craton and the Trans-Baikal Highlands

Abstract

The conventional view of the climatic influence on weathering is that weathering rates are strongly temperature-dependent due to the near-exponential relationship (Clausius-Clapeyron) between temperature and the saturation vapor pressure of water, and hence precipitation and runoff. This is a central theme in the Earth “thermostat” model, i.e., weathering of aluminosilicate rocks on continents acts through the greenhouse effect as a negative feedback on atmospheric CO 2. However, there is very little direct field evidence to support this hypothesis. To remedy the lack of systematic geochemical data for cold high latitude rivers as compared to the tropics, large, pristine drainages of Eastern Siberia have been studied. Here, data from basement terrains of the Siberian Craton are reported. The low Si to total cation ratios suggest a superficially weathered system. The total dissolved solids flux of 0.39 × 10 6 mol/km 2/yr and the CO 2 uptake flux of 149 × 10 3 mol/km 2/yr are similar to those of the tropical cratonic systems and the collisional/accretionary zone of northeastern Siberia, but about a factor of 3 lower than for the orogenic zones of the western Americas at both low and high latitudes. The lack of systematic climatic effects on the solute and CO 2 fluxes is ascribed to the unique non-glacial frost shattering processes which continuously expose fresh rock surfaces and, thus, overcome the effect of temperature inhibition on high-latitude shields and to the lateritic cover that seals in the weathering front away from the weathering agents on the tropical shields. No primary climatic effects on weathering rates on the present Earth were detected.