The Carbon Cycle: Mineral Weathering
Class #15 (Mon., Feb 13)
Reading:
Required Reading (everyone):
- Understanding the Forecast, Ch. 8, pp. 95–101.
Reading Notes:
- Understand the Urey reaction that converts silicate minerals to carbonate minerals and vice-versa.
- How does the Urey reaction behave differently at the surface of the earth (cool temperatures, low pressure) versus
deep in the earth (hot temperatures and high pressure)?
- Understand key vocabulary:
- Chemical weathering
- Metamorphic decarbonation
- Degassing
- Whatr is subduction and why is it important to the carbon cycle?
- What is the silicate weathering thermostat?
- What determines the “_set-point” of the thermostate?
- What kinds of changes could move the set-point to a “hot-house” earth, like dinosaurs experienced, or a frozen “snowball earth”?
- How fast or slow is the thermostat? How many years does it take to respond to changing conditions?
- How does the silicate-weathering thermostat help to explain why Mars is so cold and Venus is so hot?
