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Hydrochemistry of the Amur River: Weathering in a Northern Temperate Basin

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Abstract

We report the dissolved major element, organic carbon, and δ13CDOC, δ13CPOC, δD, δ18O, and 87Sr/86Sr composition of 19 summer samples from the Amur River. The Amur transported 2.6 Tg C/year of total organic carbon to the Sea of Okhotsk. The physical weathering rate (PWR) based on suspended particulate material was 13 (1.4–14) tons/(km2 year), and the chemical weathering rate based on total dissolved solids was 7 (4.3–46) tons/(km2 year). We further quantified the sources of the dissolved cations using an inverse model: rain accounted for 2 (0.6–5)%, evaporite 3 (0.7–7)%, carbonate 51 (29–74)%, and silicate 45 (25–64)%. The silicate weathering rate (SWR) in the Amur basin was 23 (15–98) × 103 mol/(km2 year) or 0.67 (0.40–2.81) tons/(km2 year), comparable to those of the Siberian rivers and the Mackenzie at higher latitudes. The SWR of the Amur was negatively correlated with elevation and relief, and positively correlated with runoff.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Y. Han and J. Yoon for valuable discussions and Y. Lee for technical support. We also thank S. Bowring at MIT for TIMS measurements. This study was supported by the US NSF EAR 0134966, and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MOST) (No. R01-2006-000-10019-0) to Y. Huh, and the Brain Korea 21 graduate student fellowship to S. Moon.

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  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-747, Korea

    Seulgi Moon & Youngsook Huh

  2. Department of Geography, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Alexandr Zaitsev

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  1. Seulgi Moon
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Moon, S., Huh, Y. & Zaitsev, A. Hydrochemistry of the Amur River: Weathering in a Northern Temperate Basin. Aquat Geochem 15, 497–527 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-009-9063-6

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