Abstract
Natural inputs to the sedimentary cycle result from river runoff into the oceans, atmospheric transport, and glacial movement. Although direct injection into the cycle by man is at least an order of magnitude less than that of nature, he has enhanced some of the natural processes. Landscape alterations, for instance, have increased by a factor of 2 or 3 the rate of natural erosion, which represents the single most important input to the cycle.
Perhaps more important than the total cycle are studies of injections of specific pollutants. Man is the major or sole agent for the input of many constituents, such as organic and certain exotic chemicals, and a rival to nature in others, such as heavy metals.
Reprinted with changes from ‘The Changing Chemistry of the Ocean’, Nobel Symp. 20 (ed. by D. Dyrssen and D. Jagner), Almqvist and Wiksell, Upsala, 1972.
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© 1975 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland
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Goldberg, E.D. (1975). Man’s Role in the Major Sedimentary Cycle. In: Singer, S.F. (eds) The Changing Global Environment. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1729-9_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1729-9_17
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