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

Abstract

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