Model devised to understand global warming impact on weathering, Earth's thermostat: Study

Rocks, rain and carbon dioxide help control Earth's climate over thousands of years - like a thermostat - through a process called weathering.

Scientists have come up with a model to better understand how weathering, the process that acts as Earth's thermostat, responds to changing global temperatures.

Rocks, rain and carbon dioxide help control Earth's climate over thousands of years - like a thermostat - through a process called weathering.

A new study led by scientists from Pennsylvania State University may improve our understanding of how this thermostat responds as temperatures change, it said.

"Life has been on this planet for billions of years, so we know Earth's temperature has remained consistent enough for there to be liquid water and to support life," said Susan Brantley, professor at Pennsylvania State University, US.

"The idea is that silicate rock weathering is this thermostat, but no one has ever really agreed on its temperature sensitivity," said Brantley.

Because many factors go into weathering, it has been challenging to use results of laboratory experiments alone to create global estimates of how weathering responds to temperature changes, the scientists said.

The study has been published in the journal Science.