Access

Letter

Nature Geoscience 1, 312–315 (1 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo185

Close mass balance of long-term carbon fluxes from ice-core CO2 and ocean chemistry records

Richard E. Zeebe & Ken Caldeira

Feedbacks controlling long-term fluxes in the carbon cycle and in particular atmospheric carbon dioxide are critical in stabilizing the Earth|[rsquo]|s long-term climate. It has been hypothesized that atmospheric CO2 concentrations over millions of years are controlled by a CO2-driven weathering feedback that maintains a mass balance between the CO2 input to the atmosphere from volcanism, metamorphism and net organic matter oxidation, and its removal by silicate rock weathering and subsequent carbonate mineral burial.