Premium
Earth's anthrobiogeochemical copper cycle
Author(s) -
Rauch J. N.,
Graedel T. E.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
global biogeochemical cycles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.512
H-Index - 187
eISSN - 1944-9224
pISSN - 0886-6236
DOI - 10.1029/2006gb002850
Subject(s) - biogeochemical cycle , copper , earth science , earth (classical element) , environmental science , crust , mantle (geology) , natural (archaeology) , astrobiology , geology , environmental chemistry , geochemistry , chemistry , paleontology , biology , physics , organic chemistry , mathematical physics
An “anthrobiogeochemical” copper cycle, from Earth's core to the Moon, combining natural biogeochemical and human anthropogenic stocks and flows is derived for the mid‐1990s. Although some aspects of the quantification have moderate to high uncertainty, the anthropogenic mining, manufacturing, and use flows (on the order of 10 4 Gg Cu/yr) clearly dominate the cycle. In contrast, the natural repositories of Earth's core, mantle, and crust, and of the Moon, hold much higher stocks of copper (>10 10 Gg) than do anthropogenic repositories (<10 6 Gg). The results indicate that the present anthropogenic rate of copper extraction exceeds the natural rate of renewal by ∼10 6 .