Influence of late Cenozoic mountain building on ocean geochemical cycles

In a steady-state ocean, input fluxes of dissolved salts to the sea must be balanced in mass and isotopic value by output fluxes. For the elements strontium, calcium, and carbon, rivers provide the primary input, whereas marine biogenic sedimentation dominates removal. Dissolved fluxes in rivers are related to rates of continental weathering, which in turn are strongly dependent on rates of uplift. The largest dissolved fluxes today arise in the Himalayan and Andean mountain ranges and the Tibetan Plateau. During the past 5 m.y., uplift rates in these areas have increased significantly; this suggests that weathering rates and river fluxes may have increased also. The oceanic records of carbonate sedimentation, level of the calcite compensation depth, and δ¹³C and δ⁸⁷Sr in biogenic sediments are consistent with a global increase in river fluxes since the late Miocene. The cooling of global climate over the past few million years may be linked to a decrease in atmospheric CO₂ driven by enhanced continental weathering in these tectonically active regions.