Chemical weathering of surface rocks regulates atmospheric CO₂ levels, offsetting volcanic emissions and stabilizing temperatures. Basalt and carbonate rocks play a crucial role due to their efficient weathering. Understanding the intricate processes converting rock to soil requires accurate insights into factors like water flow, erosion, and vegetation. While water chemistry in rivers is commonly used to gauge weathering rates, current methods, such as cosmogenic nuclides in quartz, do not work for basalt and carbonate lithologies, hindering a comprehensive understanding.

DEVENDRA aims to address the knowledge gap in basalt and carbonate lithologies by employing a novel method, the ratio of cosmogenic meteoric beryllium-10 to stable beryllium-9 released through weathering, as a unique erosion and weathering rate proxy for these rocks. The method will be used to calibrate weathering and CO₂ drawdown laws. This will be achieved by employing globally-distributed soil profiles and catchments with varying climates and erosion rates. The findings of the project will improve global weathering models, leading to a better understanding of Earth's carbon cycle over geological time scales. This will aid in predicting the trajectory of anthropogenic CO₂ in the coming centuries and estimating the potential for negative CO₂ emissions through artificially-enhanced weathering of basalts.