This chapter explores how the cycling of carbon in subduction zones and orogenic belts varies with supercontinent cycles and mountain building. It discusses the processes that link short-term and long-term carbon cycling and the timescales of these processes, such as the response times of weathering and atmospheric drawdown at periods of enhanced volcanism. This chapter covers topics of potential fluctuations in the long-term CO2 content of Earth’s atmosphere because of mantle–climate feedback.

Lee, C-T. A., Jiang, H., Dasgupta, R. & Torres, M. (2019). A framework for understanding whole Earth carbon cycling. In Orcutt, B., Daniel, I., and Dasgupta, R. (Eds.) Deep Carbon: Past to Present. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 313-357. doi:10.1017/9781108677950.011