Chemical weathering in the temperate glacial environment of the Northern Cascade Mountains

Details Chemical weathering in the temperate glacial environment of the Northern Cascade Mountains Chemical weathering in the temperate glacial environment of the Northern Cascade Mountains

Jun 1972

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1972gecoa..36..537r&link_type=abstract

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol. 36, Issue 5, pp.537-554

Mathematics

Logic

25

Scientific paper

Chemical weathering activity in the South Cascade Glacier area of the Northern Cascades is both intensive and extensive. The presence of chemical weathering is shown by (1) pedogenic clay assemblages which vary according to bedrock mineralogy, (2) distinctive water types which co-exist with discrete bedrock types and (3) the striking chemical transformation of water as it runs over bedrock. The weathering mechanisms are primarily carbonation and oxidation. Even though zoned soils are rare or absent, pedogenic minerals such as vermiculite, smectite, gibbsite and lepidocrocite accumulate locally. Cationic denudation of the South Cascade Glacier watershed (930 mE/m 2 yr) is substantially higher than the world average (390 mE/m 2 yr), indicating the intensity of chemical weathering in such an environment. Evidently the low average temperatures generally associated with an active glacier do not inhibit chemical weathering reactions. On the contrary, the turbulent well-aerated water flows prevalent in such an environment promote weathering by constantly replenishing the acid potential of the water. Also, the mechanical effects of glaciation apparently expedite the chemical weathering process by continuously reviving the fresh surface area of rock exposed to water. A crucial limiting factor in chemical weathering seems to be the supply of water and hydrogen ion from the atmosphere. By virtue of the fact that the temperate glacial environment represents an extreme of hydrologic activity, it may, therefore, represent an extreme of chemical weathering activity even in the absence of normal biologic and pedogenic processes associated with the soil.

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