Rapid Soil Production and Weathering in the Southern Alps, New Zealand

TLDR

Understanding how rapidly uplifting mountains influence CO₂ cycling and climate hinges on measuring weathering fluxes, yet soil production and weathering rates are largely unknown in the world’s fastest uplifting ranges. Beryllium‑10 data reveal that soils in New Zealand’s western Southern Alps form at up to 2.5 mm yr⁻¹, with weathering rates scaling with erosion, underscoring mountains’ significant contribution to global chemical weathering and the carbon cycle.

Abstract

Evaluating conflicting theories about the influence of mountains on carbon dioxide cycling and climate requires understanding weathering fluxes from tectonically uplifting landscapes. The lack of soil production and weathering rate measurements in Earth's most rapidly uplifting mountains has made it difficult to determine whether weathering rates increase or decline in response to rapid erosion. Beryllium-10 concentrations in soils from the western Southern Alps, New Zealand, demonstrate that soil is produced from bedrock more rapidly than previously recognized, at rates up to 2.5 millimeters per year. Weathering intensity data further indicate that soil chemical denudation rates increase proportionally with erosion rates. These high weathering rates support the view that mountains play a key role in global-scale chemical weathering and thus have potentially important implications for the global carbon cycle.