{"id":519777,"date":"2026-06-26T16:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519777\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:35:13","slug":"feedbacks-upon-feedbacks-rock-weathering-and-the-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519777\/","title":{"rendered":"Feedbacks upon feedbacks: Rock weathering and the climate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLo and behold, we end up finding that we can explain this apparent discrepancy,\u201d said Hilton. In other words, weathering of organic carbon amplified the warming initiated by volcanic CO2, so the planet warmed more than it would have if only the volcanic CO2 had been emitted.<\/p>\n


\n \"A
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Acid-digested rock samples being prepared for analysis using column chromatography.<\/p>\n

\n Credit:
\n Bob Hilton\n <\/p>\n

\n Acid-digested rock samples being prepared for analysis using column chromatography.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/p>\n

Bob Hilton<\/p>\n

But Rugenstein is skeptical of the amount of CO2 released by the weathering. \u201cTheir estimates of the total amount of carbon delivered by this feedback are enormous,\u201d said Rugenstein. \u201cI find it difficult to believe that these carbon fluxes are going to be as big as they think they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where does that leave Earth\u2019s \u201cthermostat\u201d?<\/p>\n

If rock weathering emits CO2, where does this leave our widely accepted understanding of Earth\u2019s climate \u201cthermostat,\u201d where weathering of rock (specifically weathering of silicate minerals) reduces atmospheric CO2, preventing runaway global warming?<\/p>\n

\u201cSilicate weathering is still playing a major role. We\u2019re not challenging that,\u201d said Hilton. \u201cIt means that silicate weathering has to work harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile [organic carbon weathering] could be a big positive feedback, in the end, that tells you that the silicate weathering feedback has to be even stronger,\u201d said Rugenstein.<\/p>\n

The strength of the competition between silicate weathering and organic carbon weathering depends on the amount of organic-carbon-rich sediment that\u2019s exposed on land. \u201cAt some point, you\u2019re going to run out of organic carbon to oxidize, and that\u2019s then going to place a hard limit on the strength of this feedback,\u201d said Rugenstein.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the volume of silicate minerals available to weather and draw down CO2 is much greater. \u201cThat\u2019s why that feedback ultimately is a stronger one\u2014we have a much bigger buffer to play with,\u201d said Rugenstein.<\/p>\n

A small, long-term uncertain impact for humans<\/p>\n

The study suggests that this feedback is likely to apply to other climate warming events, including our own today. Hilton foresees organic carbon weathering adding CO2 to the atmosphere over the next few centuries, with a small amplifying effect to human-caused warming. \u201cIt\u2019s not disaster stations,\u201d said Hilton, \u201cbut it is an amount of carbon that could be released at a rate more than it is right now, and that does eat into our carbon budget.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLo and behold, we end up finding that we can explain this apparent discrepancy,\u201d said Hilton. In other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-519777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}