Three main processes (or pumps) that make up the marine carbon cycle bring atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) into the ocean interior and distribute it through the oceans.  These three pumps are: (1) the solubility pump, (2) the carbonate pump, and (3) the biological pump.  The total active pool of carbon at the Earth's surface for durations of less than 10,000 years is roughly 40,000 gigatons C (Gt C, a gigaton is one billion tons, or the weight of approximately 6 million blue whales), and about 95% (~38,000 Gt C) is stored in the ocean, mostly as dissolved inorganic carbon.  The speciation of dissolved inorganic carbon in the marine carbon cycle is a primary controller of acid-base chemistry in the oceans.