WEATHERING
Weathering:
The changes that take place in minerals and rocks at or near the surface
of the earth in response to the atmosphere, to water, and to biological
activities (plant and animal life). Weathering may be divided into two types:
mechanical and chemical.
1. MECHANICAL WEATHERING (DISINTEGRATIONS
The process by which rock is broken down into smaller and smaller
fragments, as a result of energy developed by physical forces. Note that in
this type the size changes into smaller fragments but the composition
remains unchanged.
A- EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION RESULTING FROM HEAT:
Changes in temperature, if they are rapid enough and great enough may
bring, about the mechanical weathering of rock. Sudden increase in
temperatures may occur as a result of forest fires for example. Such fires can
generate enough heat to break up the rock. The rapid and violent heating of
the exterior zone of the rock causes it to expand, and if the expansion is
great enough, flakes and large fragments of rock are split off. Lightening
often starts such fires, and it may shatter the rock by a direct strike.
Variations in temperature from day to night and from winter to summer
cause expansion and contraction of rock material.
B- FROST ACTION
Frost is much more effective than heat in producing mechanical
weathering. When water freezes its volume increases by about 9%, when
water that trickles down (seeps) into the cracks, crevices (fissures, or
fractures), and pores of a rock expands as it freezes, it sets pressures that are
directed outward from the inside of the rock. Such pressures may be great
enough to dislodge (remove) figments from the rock's surface.
C- EXFOLIATION
Curved plates of rock are stripped from the larger rock mass by the action of
physical forces.
1- Exfoliation domes: A large dome like feature produced in homogeneous
coarse grained igneous rocks such as granite
2- Spheroidally weathered boulders: The crumbling off of concentric
shells from rock masses of various sizes as a result of pressures built up
during chemical weathering as in granite; or due to the successive,
expansion and contraction of clay minerals upon hydration and dehydration
in mudstone or claystone beds. Both types usually produce fragments called
spheriodaliy weathered boulders.
D- OTHER TYPE OFMECHANICAL WEATHERING
Other types of mechanical weathering may be noticed in the
following natural features:
(a) Effect of plant roots,
(b) Mixing of soils by ants, worms, and rodents.
(c) Running water, glacier, wind, and ocean waves, etc.
(d) Role of human beings.
2. CHEMICAL WEATHERING (DECOMPOSITION)
Chemical weathering involves transformation of the original minerals to
something else (different); or dissolution of the material. The factors that
govern chemical weathering are:
1- Particle size :The size of individual particles, of rock is an extremely
important factor in chemical weathering, since substances can react
chemically only when they come in contact with one another
2- Composition of the original material: Some minerals have lower resistance
to chemical weathering than others. (Olivine for example responds easily to
chemical weathering while quartz is highly resistant)
3- Climate: Plays a key role in chemical weathering. Moisture particularly
when it is accompanied by warmth, speeds up the rate of chemical
weathering; conversely, dryness and cold slow it down
4- Plants and animal activities contribute directly or indirectly to chemical
weathering, since their life processes produce oxygen, carbon dioxide, and
certain acids that enter in chemical reactions with earth materials.
