Factors controlling present weathering rates: new contributions from basalt erosion studies

As chemical weathering of silicate rocks acts as a sink for atmospheric CO2 and as greenhouse effect gases such as CO2 have a leading role in climate regulation, much of river geochemical studies now focus on chemical and mechanical riverine erosion and on their controlling parameters. Moreover, weathering has probably had a dominating influence in the climatic evolution of the Earth, and studies of present weathering processes are likely to provide useful informations. First studies of present erosion have concerned the world-wide biggest drainage basins such as Congo and Amazon, but numerous other studies took an interest in smaller drainage basins with only one lithology or in a given type of climate. Among the existing studies of basalt erosion, the present ones have to their advantage to examine both chemical and mechanical weathering under various climatic and morphological settings.