Silicate weathering and soil formation is critical to global -scale processes since silicates constitute about 83% of the rocks exposed at Earth ' s land surface. On geological time scales, atmospheric carbon dioxide content has been balanced by the weathering of Ca -Mg -silicate rocks, the burial and weathering of sedimentary organic matter and degassing of volcanoes. A large number of laboratory and fi eld -based studies have been performed to better understand the link between silicate weathering, climate and the long -term carbon cycle. In this chapter we summarize some of this past work and suggest directions for future research.

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