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Abstract

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).