The authors focused on one specific type of weathering, caused by chemical reactions that involve carbon dioxide. Even then, this gas doesn’t weather all minerals in the same way.

Chemical weathering can help counteract the continuous carbon dioxide released by the world’s volcanoes and is part of the Earth’s natural carbon cycle.

The processes are definitively independent, but not exclusive. Weathering is the mechanical and chemical hammer that breaks down and sculpts the rocks. Erosion transports the fragments away.

High temperatures accelerate the chemical rock weathering process, reducing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, allowing the climate to recover," said Pogge von Strandmann.