Continental arc volcanism as the principal driver of icehouse-greenhouse variability

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aad5787
• Publication Date: 2016-04-21T18:44:00Z
• Authors: N. Ryan McKenzie; Brian K. Horton; Shannon E. Loomis; Daniel F. Stockli; Noah J. Planavsky; Cin-Ty A. Lee
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Erosion overwhelmed by eruption

Volcanism and erosion can feed into long-term climate change, but determining their relative importance is challenging. Erosion is known to be a carbon sink and is thought to play an outsized role in shifting global climate. However, McKenzie et al. suggest that long-term oscillations in climate may be tied to the amount of continental arc volcanism (see the Perspective by Kump). A global compilation of arc volcano-produced zircons over the past 700 million years revealed good correlation between warm and cool epochs with the waxing and waning of volcanism. Thus, volcanism may be a more important driver and erosion a less important sink for very long-term climate changes.

Science , this issue p. 444 ; see also p. 411