Mineral surface area in deep weathering profiles reveals the interrelationship of iron oxidation and silicate weathering

Fisher, Beth A.; Yoo, Kyungsoo; Aufdenkampe, Anthony K.; Nater, Edward A.; Feinberg, Joshua M.; Nyquist, Jonathan E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-51-2023

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-51-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-51-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

Research article

|

31 Jan 2023

Research article |

| 31 Jan 2023

Mineral surface area in deep weathering profiles reveals the interrelationship of iron oxidation and silicate weathering

Beth A. Fisher, Kyungsoo Yoo, Anthony K. Aufdenkampe, Edward A. Nater, Joshua M. Feinberg, and Jonathan E. Nyquist

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-51-2023-supplement

IGSN

LP_Well01 Beth Fisher IESW10006

LP_Well02 Beth Fisher IESW10007

LP_Pit_For1 Beth Fisher IESW10001

LP_Pit_For2 Beth Fisher IESW10002

LP_Pit_For3 Beth Fisher IESW10003

LP_Pit_For5 Beth Fisher IESW10004

LP_Pit_For6 Beth Fisher IESW10005

Short summary

We measured the surface area of minerals in two 21 m cores from soil to bedrock to test hypotheses on the formation of the surface area of weathered rock. A sharp increase in high-surface-area secondary minerals extended from 3 m to the ground surface. Half the total surface area was from corroded iron minerals, which form in the presence of oxygen, even though corroded iron comprised less than 0.1 % of the rock. Element removal by rock dissolution started at 7 m but did not form new minerals.