Assessing the Deep Carbon Release in an Active Volcanic Field Using Hydrochemistry, δ¹³C_DIC and Δ¹⁴C_DIC

Abstract

Abstract Volcanic activities have great implications on the geological carbon cycle, and ascertaining the deep carbon contribution in the Earth's surface that runs along the volcanic edifices is important to understand the relationship between solid Earth degassing and global climate change. This study reports analytical results of major dissolved ions concentrations, carbon isotopic compositions (δ 13 C DIC and Δ 14 C DIC ) of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) of rivers, cold springs, and hot springs from Changbaishan volcanic area, Northeast China. The hydrothermal fluids had a significant impact on solutes budgets, as well as carbon isotopes for the rivers. The changes in concentrations of major ions are mainly controlled by mixing of high‐temperature water/rock interaction and low‐temperature water/rock interaction, and low‐temperature water/rock interaction can be explained by the change of chemical composition between volcanic cone (trachyte) and basaltic shield. Because Δ 14 C DIC is conservative to CO 2 outgassing, we used Δ 14 C DIC to figure out the contributions of deep carbon and surface carbon. While δ 13 C DIC is sensitive to CO 2 outgassing, we thus estimated the minimum deep CO 2 outgassing yield (1.24 × 10 4 t C yr −1 ) based on DIC flux corrected for outgassing by a Rayleigh model. In the Changbaishan volcanic area, deep carbon release flux was higher than CO 2 consumption flux by silicate weathering, while the deep CO 2 outgassing flux was an underestimate, consistent with the hypothesis that deep CO 2 release regulates climate on geological timescales. This study calls for a better understanding of the effects of volcanic activities on Earth's surface carbon cycling, which has great implications on studying global climate change.

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