Molybdenum, vanadium, and uranium weathering in small mountainous rivers and rivers draining high-standing islands

• Published in: Geochimica et cosmochimica acta Vol. 219; pp. 22 - 43
• Main Authors: Gardner, Christopher B., Carey, Anne E., Lyons, W. Berry, Goldsmith, Steven T., McAdams, Brandon C., Trierweiler, Annette M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15-12-2017
• Subjects: Molybdenum; Rivers; Uranium; Vanadium; weathering; weathering; Uranium; Rivers; Molybdenum; Vanadium
• ISSN: 0016-7037; 1872-9533
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2017.09.012

Rivers draining high standing islands (HSIs) and small mountainous rivers (SMRs) are known to have extremely high sediment fluxes, and can also have high chemical weathering yields, which makes them potentially important contributors to the global riverine elemental flux to the ocean. This work reports on the riverine concentrations, ocean flux, and weathering yields of Molybdenum (Mo), Vanadium (V), and Uranium (U) in a large number of small but geochemically important rivers using 338 river samples from ten lithologically-diverse regions. These redox-sensitive elements are used extensively to infer paleo-redox conditions in the ocean, and Mo and V are also important rock-derived micronutrients used by microorganisms in nitrogen fixation. Unlike in large river systems, in which dissolved Mo has been attributed predominately to pyrite dissolution, Mo concentrations in these rivers did not correlate with sulfate concentrations. V was found to correlate strongly with Si in terrains dominated by silicate rocks, but this trend was not observed in primarily sedimentary regions. Many rivers exhibited much higher V/Si ratios than larger rivers, and rivers draining young Quaternary volcanic rocks in Nicaragua had much higher dissolved V concentrations (mean=1306nM) than previously-studied rivers. U concentrations were generally well below the global average with the exception of rivers draining primarily sedimentary lithologies containing carbonates and shales. Fluxes of U and Mo from igneous terrains of intermediate composition are lower than the global average, while fluxes of V from these regions are higher, and up to two orders of magnitude higher in the Nicaragua rivers. Weathering yields of Mo and V in most regions are above the global mean, despite lower than average concentrations measured in some of those systems, indicating that the chemical weathering of these elements are higher in these SMR watersheds than larger drainages. In regions of active boundaries with andesite/dacite lithologies, rivers draining young Pleistocene rocks had higher concentrations than did older Miocene-Pliocene rocks of a similar composition. This work shows that weathering yields of Mo, V, and U from SMRs are slightly higher than from large rivers, and the age of igneous lithologies in these regions exhibits a measurable control on riverine concentrations of these elements.