Comparison between Silicate Weathering and Physical Erosion Rates in Andean Basins of the Amazon River ?

Jean-Sébastien Moquet (1) , Jérôme Viers (2) , Alain Crave (3) , Elisa Armijos (4) , Christelle Lagane , Waldo Lavado , Emilie Pépin , Rodrigo Pombosa , Luis Noriega , William Santini , Jean-Loup Guyot

1 LMTG - Laboratoire des Mécanismes et Transfert en Géologie
2 GET - Géosciences Environnement Toulouse
3 GR - Géosciences Rennes
4 INAMHI - INAMHI

From published data based on the HYBAM observatory database, we explore the relationship between silicate weathering rates and physical erosion rates over the Andean basins of the Amazon River. No homogenous relationship between erosion rates and chemical weathering rate is observed over this area. Only the volcanic basins respond to the global relationship defined by Millot et al1. For remaining areas, two hypotheses can explain the absence of coherence with this global empiric law: 1) The relationship between weathering and physical erosion rates need to be defined for each lithological class, and 2) For erosion rates higher than around 1000t.km-2.yr-1 the system is "weathering limited".

Keywords: silicate weathering; physical erosion; Andes; Amazon basin

Domains: Earth Sciences

Jean-Sébastien Moquet, Jérôme Viers, Alain Crave, Elisa Armijos, Christelle Lagane, et al.. Comparison between Silicate Weathering and Physical Erosion Rates in Andean Basins of the Amazon River ?. Procedia Earth and Planetary Science, 2014, 10, pp.275-279. ⟨10.1016/j.proeps.2014.08.061⟩. ⟨insu-01061116⟩