Since the seminal work of Milliman and Syvitski (J Geol 100:525–544, 1992), there has been interest in evaluating the significance of small mountainous river (SMRs) systems and their role in the transport of both solutes, and especially sediments, to the world ocean. Although some data exist from portions of the Earth’s mountainous regions, the majority of this work has been focused in the western Pacific Ocean and Caribbean regions. During those previous studies, workers have sought to evaluate the interconnection between physical erosion and chemical erosion rates. We report herein on the riverine geochemistry of five rivers draining northern Spain and six rivers draining southern Italy. The geochemistry of these rivers is dominated by calcium carbonate weathering and input from either evaporite dissolution or marine aerosols, or both. Silicate mineral weathering is also occurring but it is not the dominant process. Using previously tabulated annual total suspended load data, we have calculated both physical and chemical erosion yields from seven of the eleven rivers under investigation where complete data sets are available. The physical yields are much higher in the Italian rivers, while chemical yields of all rivers are in a similar range. Our work adds new information on SMRs from geographical regions that have not previously been evaluated within this global context.

自从 Milliman 和 Syvitski 的开创性工作（J Geol 100:525–544, 1992）以来，人们对评估小型山区河流（SMR）系统的重要性及其在溶质（尤其是沉积物）运输中的作用产生了兴趣。到世界海洋。尽管一些数据来自地球部分山区，但这项工作的大部分集中在西太平洋和加勒比地区。在之前的研究中，工作人员试图评估物理侵蚀和化学侵蚀速率之间的相互关系。我们在此报告了流经西班牙北部的五条河流和流经意大利南部的六条河流的河流地球化学。这些河流的地球化学主要是碳酸钙风化和蒸发溶解或海洋气溶胶或两者的输入。硅酸盐矿物风化也在发生，但它不是主要过程。使用之前列出的年度总悬浮负荷数据，我们计算了所调查的 11 条河流中的 7 条（其中有完整数据集）的物理和化学侵蚀量。意大利河流的物理产量要高得多，而所有河流的化学产量都在相似的范围内。我们的工作增加了有关地理区域中小型模块化反应堆的新信息，这些信息以前从未在全球背景下进行过评估。