Paleogene global cooling–induced temperature feedback on chemical weathering, as recorded in the northern Tibetan Plateau

Plate-tectonic processes have long been thought to be the major cause of the Cenozoic global carbon cycle, and global cooling by uplift of the Tibetan Plateau through enhancing silicate weathering and organic carbon burial and/or by weathering of obducted ophiolites during the closure of the Neo-Tethys Ocean. However, the imbalance resulting from accelerated CO2 consumption and a relatively stable CO2 input from volcanic degassing during the Cenozoic should have depleted atmospheric CO2 within a few million years; therefore, a negative feedback mechanism must have stabilized the carbon cycle. Here, we present the first almost-complete Paleogene silicate weathering intensity (SWI) records from continental rocks in the northern Tibetan Plateau showing that silicate weathering in this tectonically inactive area was modulated by global temperature. These findings suggest that Paleogene global cooling was also strongly influenced by a temperature feedback mechanism, which regulated silicate weathering rates and hydrological cycles and maintained a nearly stable carbon cycle. It acted as a negative feedback by decreasing CO2 consumption resulting from the lower SWI and the kinetic limitations in tectonically inactive areas.