The Environmental Significance of Chemistry Variations in the Rivers around Taiwan

Abstract

Chemistry variations in the rivers are key indexes of weathering mechanisms. This paper presents a chemical variation examination of water samples acquired from 11 Taiwanese rivers to assess the relationships between chemical and physical weathering based on the variations of major dissolved ions. One salient relationship is illustrated by the discovery that huge amount of water discharge is the vital factor associated with the dilution of ion concentrations. The total dissolved solid discharge from the investigated rivers is approximately 10 Mt/yr, prominently, 60% of the dissolved ions are attributed to the outcrop of silicate. Finally, it is noted that only 4% of the total dissolved solid discharge is observed in the total delivered material in river water, which is practical with the characteristics of weathering mechanism, most of the materials transported into river water undergo little chemical weathering.