Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T04:45:58.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Solute profiles in soils, weathering gradients and exchange equilibrium/disequilibrium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

A. F. White*
Affiliation:
US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
M. S. Schulz
Affiliation:
US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
D. A. Stonestrom
Affiliation:
US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
D. V. Vivit
Affiliation:
US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
J. Fitzpatrick
Affiliation:
US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
T. Bullen
Affiliation:
US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
*

Abstract

The spatial and temporal changes in hydrology and pore water elemental and 87/86Sr compositions were used to determine contemporary weathering rates in a 65 to 226 ky old soil chronosequence formed from granitic sediments deposited on marine terraces along coastal California. Cl-corrected Na, K and Si increased with depth denoting inputs from the weathering of plagioclase and K-feldspar. Solute 87/86Sr exhibited progressive mixing of sea water-dominated precipitation with inputs from less radiogenic plagioclase. Linear approximations to these weathering gradients were used to determine plagioclase weathering rates of between 0.38 and 8.9x10-15 moles m-2 s-1. The lack of corresponding weathering gradients for Ca and Sr indicated short-term equilibrium with the clay ion exchange pool which requires periodic resetting by natural perturbations to maintain continuity, in spite of soil composition changes reflecting the effects of long-term weathering.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adam, D.P., Byrne, R. and Luther, E. (1981) A late Pleistocene and Holoeene pollen record from Laguna de Las Tancas, Northern Coastal Santa Cruz County, California. Madrono, 28, 255–272.Google Scholar
Perg, L.A., Anderson, R.S. and Finkel, R.C. (2003) Use of cosmogenic radionuclides as a sediment tracer in the Santa Cruz littoral cell, California, United States. Geology, 31, 299–302.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, A.F. (2002) Determining mineral weathering rates based on solid and solute weathering gradients: Application to biotite weathering in saprolites. Chemical Geology, 190, 69–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, A.F. and Brantley, S.L. (2003) The effect of time on the weathering of silicate minerals: Why do weathering rates differ in the laboratory and field. Chemical Geology, 202, 479–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, A.F., Schulz, M.S., Vivit, D.V., Blum, A.E., Stonestrom, D.A. and Anderson, S.P. (2008) Chemical weathering of a marine chronosequence, Santa Cruz, California I. Interpreting rates and controls based on soil concentration-depth profiles. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 72, 36–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar