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``Atmospheric CO2 levels for the last 500 million years''
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 99, 4167-4171, April 2, 2002.
Abstract:
The last 500 million years of the strontium-isotope record are shown to correlate significantly with the concurrent record of isotopic fractionation between inorganic and organic carbon after the effects of recycled sediment are removed from the strontium signal. The correlation is shown to result from the common dependence of both signals on weathering and magmatic processes. Because the long-term evolution of carbon dioxide levels depends similarly on weathering and magmatism, the relative fluctuations of $\cotwo$ levels are inferred from the shared fluctuations of the isotopic records. The resulting $\cotwo$ signal exhibits no systematic correspondence with the geologic record of climatic variations at tectonic time scales.
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