Rivers are the dominant source of many elements and isotopes in the ocean, but the fluxes vary with time. Derek Vance and colleagues suggest that the pulse of rapid chemical weathering initiated at the last deglaciation has not yet decayed away, and that weathering rates remain about two to three times the average for an entire late Quaternary glacial cycle. Consideration of such variability largely ameliorates long-standing problems with chemical and isotopic mass balances in the ocean.
- Derek Vance
- Damon A. H. Teagle
- Gavin L. Foster