The Lithosphere

The amount of recycled carbonate in the lithosphere is estimated at 70 million Pg C (Hunt, 1972). Flolland (1978) calculates a juvenile carbon reser-voir (carbon that never has been released from the litho- 

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Silicon, a low density chemical element having nonmetallic chaiacteristics, is the second, after oxygen (50.5%), most abundant element in the lithosphere. Silicon occurs naturally in the form of oxides and silicates and constitutes over 25% of the earth s cmst (see Silica). 

The outer shell of the earth, consisting of the upper mantle and the crust (Figure I4. lO), is formed of a number of rigid plates. These plates are 20 in number and are shown in Figure 14.1 I. Of these, six or seven are major plates, as can be seen in the map. The edges of these plates define their boundaries and the arrows indicate the direction of their movement. These plates contain the continents, oceans and mountains. They almost float on the partially molten rock and metal of the mantle. The outer shell, known as the lithosphere, is about 70 to 1,50 km thick. It has already moved great distances below the etirth s surface, ever since the earth was formed and is believed to be in slow and continuous motion all the time. The plates slide on the molten mantle and move about lO to 100 mm a year in the direction shown by the arrows. The movement of plates is believed to be the cause of continental drifts, the formation of ocean basins and mountains and also the consequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. 

Oxygen is the most abundant element on the earth s surface it occurs both as the free element and combined in innumerable compounds, and comprises 23% of the atmosphere by weight, 46% of the lithosphere and more than 85% of the hydrosphere ( 85.8% of the oceans and 88.81% of pure water). It is also, perhaps paradoxically, by far the most abundant element on the surface of the moon where, on average, 3 out of every 5 atoms are oxygen (44.6% by weight). 

The lithosphere is the solid portion of the earth. We shall use the term to include the central core, though there remains controversy as to whether the core is solid or liquid. The lithosphere is a sphere of solid material about 4000 miles in radius. We have direct access to only a minute fraction of this immense ball. The deepest mine penetrates only two or three miles. The deepest oil wells are about five miles deep. 

We know very much about the outermost portion of the lithosphere because it is available for direct study. In contrast, we know almost nothing about the inner lithosphere, though it constitutes over 99.5% of the mass of the earth. 

Seismic observations furnish our only probe of the inner lithosphere. The shock waves initiated by an earthquake travel through the interior of the earth in paths that are bent in accordance with the elastic properties and density of the medium they penetrate. From these paths, seismologists have been able to determine the existence of zones within the lithosphere. The... 

The inside of the lithosphere is called the core. Still higher pressures are expected and the density may rise as high as 18 grams per milliliter at the center of the earth. Some of the core may be liquid but the evidence is not decisive. 

As a specific example, consider oceanic sulfate as the reservoir. Its main source is river runoff (pre-industrial value 100 Tg S/yr) and the sink is probably incorporation into the lithosphere by hydrogeothermal circulation in mid-ocean ridges (100 Tg S/yr, McDuff and Morel, 1980). This is discussed more fully in Chapter 13. The content of sulfate in the oceans is about 1.3 X lO TgS. If we make the (im-realistic) assumption that the present runoff, which due to man-made activities has increased to 200 Tg S/yr, would continue indefinitely, how fast would the sulfate concentration in the ocean adjust to a new equilibrium value The time scale characterizing the adjustment would be To 1.3 X 10 Tg/(10 Tg/yr) 10 years and the new equilibrium concentration eventually approached would be twice the original value. A more detailed treatment of a similar problem can be found in Southam and Hay (1976). 

Although the largest reservoirs of carbon are found in the lithosphere, the fluxes between it and the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere are small. It follows that the turnover time of carbon in the lithosphere is many orders of magnitude longer than the turnover times in any of the other reservoirs. Many of the current modeling efforts studying the partitioning of fossil fuel carbon between different reservoirs only include the three "fast" spheres the lithosphere s role in the carbon cycle has received less attention. 

Carbon is released from the lithosphere by erosion and resides in the oceans ca. 10 years before being deposited again in some form of oceanic sediment. It remains in the lithosphere on the average 10 years before again being released by erosion (Broecker, 1973). The amount of carbon in the ocean-atmosphere-biosphere system is maintained in a steady state by geologic processes the role of biological processes is, however, of profound importance... 

The vast majority of sulfur at any given time is in the lithosphere. The atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere, on the other hand, are where most transfer of sulfur takes place. The role of the biosphere often involves reactions that result in the movement of sulfur from one reservoir to another. The burning of coal by humans (which oxidizes fossilized sulfur to SO2 gas) and the reduction of seawater sulfate by phytoplankton which can lead to the creation of another gas, dimethyl sulfide (CH3SCH3), are examples of such processes. 

There are several environmentally significant mercury species. In the lithosphere, mercury is present primarily in the +II oxidation state as the very insoluble mineral cirmabar (HgS), as a minor constituent in other sulfide ores, bound to the surfaces of other minerals such as oxides, or bound to organic matter. In soil, biological reduction apparently is primarily responsible for the formation of mercury metal, which can then be volatilized. Metallic mercury is also thought to be the primary form emitted in high-temperature industrial processes. The insolubility of cinnabar probably limits the direct mobilization of mercury where this mineral occurs, but oxidation of the sulfide in oxygenated water can allow mercury to become available and participate in other reactions, including bacterial transformations. 

Foregoing any discussion of the very slow processes within the lithosphere, the immediate focal points are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the interfaces between them, and the solid phases (sediment, the pedosphere, and lithosphere). For the aqueous phase the reservoirs are ... 

The carbon cycle is complicated by several reactions that involve CO2. These reactions transfer carbon between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere (Earth s surface waters), and the lithosphere (Earth s crastal solids). The processes that move carbon from one sphere to another are illustrated schematically in the figure below. 

Almost all the Earth s carbon is found in the lithosphere as carbonate sediments that have precipitated from the oceans. Shells of aquatic animals also contribute CaC03 to the lithosphere. Carbon returns to the hydrosphere as carbonate minerals dissolve in water percolating through the Earth s crust. This process is limited by the solubility products for carbonate salts, so lithospheric carbonates represent a relatively inaccessible storehouse of carbon. 

Aluminium is the most abundant element of the lithosphere. Although a large number of persons are exposed world-wide to Al, the incidence of pulmonary effects is low (Schaller et al. 1994). In the 1970 s the effect of Al appearing in dialysis solutions on the central nervous system has become weU known. Increased Al could also be detected in several brain regions of patients with Alzheimer s disease. For the determination in biological materials the most widely used method is GF-AAS. 

At shallow pressure (less than 1 GPa), Th becomes slightly more compatible than U in clinopyroxene (Landwehr et al. 2001) and garnet is not stable even in pyroxenite or eclogite. On the other hand, it is believed (mostly based on observations) that Pa remains more incompatible than U through the entire length of the melt column. Thus, melting at intermediate pressure should yield small °Th or U excesses, but significant Pa excess. This has been observed in the lithospheric mantle in the Colorado plateau by... 

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