Continental Runoff of Solid Matter as a Source of Dissolved
Calcium in the Ocean

A. V. Savenko^a and V. S. Savenko^b

^a Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

^b Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: Alla_Savenko@rambler.ru

Received January 16, 2013; in final form, October 24, 2013

Abstract—It was found in the experiments that the transfer of calcium from the solid phase to the dissolved
state took place under the interaction of terrigenous matter (bottom sediments from the freshwater lake) with
the solutions modeling the interstitial waters of the sediments of high-productive regions of the ocean. This cal-
cium might later bind the autochthonous CO₂ formed in the ocean under the oxidation of organic matter.
According to the data of the three-week experiment, 1 g of the terrigenous matter evolved on average ~2.3 mg
Ca²⁺ into interstitial solutions, which conforms to the involving of exclusively surface layers of the grains of
the solid phase into the reaction. In view of the true rate of halmyrolysis of the grains of terrigenous silicates (a
few m/year), at the value of the continental runoff of solid matter being equal to 16 billion t/year, the amount
of dissolved calcium supplied to the ocean as a result of the transformation of the terrigenous sedimentary mat-
ter at the stage of diagenesis amounts to 250–440 million t/year and over. These values are 3- to 5-fold higher
that the amount of calcium in the continental runoff of dissolved matter supplied by the erosion of silicates and
capable of forming carbonate sediments in the ocean under the interaction with autochthonous CO₂, unlike the
calcium that is product of the dissolution of carbonate rocks.

DOI: 10.1134/S0001437014030126

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