Earth’s Thermostat – Chemical Weathering
q Chemical weathering acts as
Earth’s thermostat  and
regulate its long-term climate.
q This thermostat mechanism
lies in two facts:
      (1) the average global rate of
chemical weathering depends
on the state of Earth’s climate,
      (2) weathering also has the
capacity to alter that state by
regulating the rate which CO2
is removed from the
atmosphere.