The late neogene ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr record of lowland himalayan rivers

Fossil shells and paleosol carbonate from ancestral Himalayan river deposits provide a ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr record of lowland Himalayan river water during the late Neogene. Reconstructed ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr river values increased sharply in the late Miocene, probably marking the beginning of exhumation of high-⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr metalimestones, more in the central than in the western Himalayas. These results imply that the marine ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr record may not be a proxy for silicate weathering or consumption of atmospheric CO₂ resulting from that weathering.