Lithologic Controls on Silicate Weathering Regimes of Temperate Planets

TL;DR

This study models how different rock types influence silicate weathering rates on temperate planets, revealing lithology-dependent regimes and potential climate feedbacks crucial for planetary habitability.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamic and fluid-transport model to quantify lithology-specific weathering rates, highlighting the importance of mineral assemblages over individual minerals.

Findings

Weathering rates vary significantly between continental and oceanic crust lithologies.

Thermodynamics dominate weathering control at low CO2 or high temperatures.

Weathering regimes depend on lithology and can influence climate feedback mechanisms.

Abstract

Weathering of silicate rocks at a planetary surface can draw down CO$_2$ from the atmosphere for eventual burial and long-term storage in the planetary interior. This process is thought to provide an essential negative feedback to the carbonate-silicate cycle (carbon cycle) to maintain clement climates on Earth and potentially similar temperate exoplanets. We implement thermodynamics to determine weathering rates as a function of surface lithology (rock type). These rates provide upper limits that allow estimating the maximum rate of weathering in regulating climate. This modeling shows that the weathering of mineral assemblages in a given rock, rather than individual minerals, is crucial to determine weathering rates at planetary surfaces. By implementing a fluid-transport controlled approach, we further mimic chemical kinetics and thermodynamics to determine weathering rates for three types of rocks inspired by the lithologies of Earth's continental and oceanic crust, and its upper mantle. We find that thermodynamic weathering rates of a continental crust-like lithology are about one to two orders of magnitude lower than those of a lithology characteristic of the oceanic crust. We show that when the CO$_2$ partial pressure decreases or surface temperature increases, thermodynamics rather than kinetics exerts a strong control on weathering. The kinetically- and thermodynamically-limited regimes of weathering depend on lithology, whereas, the supply-limited weathering is independent of lithology. Our results imply that the temperature-sensitivity of thermodynamically-limited silicate weathering may instigate a positive feedback to the carbon cycle, in which the weathering rate decreases as the surface temperature increases.