Earth's anthrobiogeochemical copper cycle

摘要

An "anthrobiogeochemical" copper cycle, from Earth's core to the Moon, combining natural biogeochemical and human anthropogenic stocks and flows is derived for the mid-1990s. Although some aspects of the quantification have moderate to high uncertainty, the anthropogenic mining, manufacturing, and use flows (on the order of 10(4) Gg Cu/yr) clearly dominate the cycle. In contrast, the natural repositories of Earth's core, mantle, and crust, and of the Moon, hold much higher stocks of copper (>10(10) Gg) than do anthropogenic repositories (<10(6) Gg). The results indicate that the present anthropogenic rate of copper extraction exceeds the natural rate of renewal by similar to 10(6).