ALBERT

Description: Starting in 2016, the Taroko Earth Surface Observatory (TESO), a catchment-wide geomorphic observatory was set up in the Liwu catchment in the Taroko National Park in Taiwan. The set up consists of two basic station types: combined seismic and weather stations, featuring a broadband seismometer logging and a multi-parameter weather sensor, and hydrometric stations, the instrumentation of which are specific at each location. Seismic data hosted by the GEOFON database is openly accessible in real time.

Description: A line of 6 broadband seismometers have been deployed across a ridge in the Hualien County (Eastern Taiwan). From March 2015 to June 2016 the network has been continuously recording waves incoming from the Taiwanese regional seismicity. During that period, more than 2000 earthquakes with magnitudes Ml〉3 and distant from less than 200km were recorded. The hill is well approximated by a triangular topography of 3600m in length by 900m in height. Waveform data are open and available from the GEOFON data centre, under network code 5K.

Description: This dataset was used to analyse the link between chemical weathering and erosion rates across the southern tip of Taiwan. The weathering of silicate minerals is a key component of Earth’s long-term carbon cycle, and it stabilises Earth’s climate by sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere – thereby balancing CO2-emissions from the mantle. Conversely, the weathering of accessory carbonate and sulphides acts as a CO2 source. Chemical weathering is fundamentally dependent on the exposure of fresh minerals by erosion. With these data we investigated the link between the exposure of rocks by erosion and the chemical weathering of silicates, carbonates, and sulphides across a landscape with a significant erosion-rate gradient and comparatively little variation in runoff and lithology. This dataset includes new major element chemistry and water isotopes of river waters collected from across the southern tip of Taiwan as well as associated topographic and lithologic data (tab 1 in the excel table). Moreover, the data include a compilation of published 10Be-derived erosion rates from a subset of the sampled rivers (tab 2 in the excel file) and available major element chemistry from hotsprings in the region (tab 3 in the excel file). Using a mixing model, we derived the cation contributions from silicate and carbonate weathering as well as from hotspring and cyclic sources. Further, we estimated the erosion rates for each sample from the compiled 10Be data and the steepness of river channels, and we estimated saturation and pH in the weathering zone. For more information please refer to the associated data description file and especially to Bufe et al. (2021).