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WEATHERING
Weathering is a process where rocks, soil,
and minerals are broken down into
pieces.

The agents of weathering are water, ice, acids, salts, plants,

animals, and changes in temperature whether it is cold or hot.

Different Types of Weathering

💡 Physical Weathering

A. Frost Wedging or Freeze-Thaw

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 Causes many rocks to Water Cracks may also allow
break. This refers to expands by entry
the repeated freezing 9 percent
of roots, agents of
and when it
biological weathering
melting of water freezes
that can also pry
within small narrow into ice.
apart
crack or space in the As it
rock surface. expands, rock.
it
exerts up
to 4.3
million
pounds per
square
foot of
the
pressure,
enough to
open
cracks and
fissures
in rocks.

B. Crystal Formation or Salt Wedging

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 Crystal formation similarly cracks the rock. Most water
contains dissolved salts.
When the water in rock fissures evaporates, salt crystals form
that, like ice, can force
open fissures. This “salt wedging” tends to be most pronounced
in arid regions given
the high evaporation rates; it also occurs along seacoasts.

C. Swiftly moving water

Rapidly moving water can lift, for short periods, rocks from
the stream bottom. When
these rocks drop, they collide with other rocks, breaking tiny
pieces off.

D. Plant roots
Plant roots can grow in cracks. The pressure of a confined
growing root can be
substantial. These pressures make cracks in the rocks larger,
and, as roots grow,
they can break rocks apart.

E. Exfoliation

This occurs as cracks develop parallel to the land surface a

consequence of the
reduction in pressure during uplift and erosion.

💡 Chemical Weathering

Chemical weathering changes the molecular structure of rocks

and soil.

A. Solution or dissolution - removal of rock in solution by

acidic rainwater. In
particular, limestone is weathered by rainwater containing
dissolved CO2,
(this process is sometimes called carbonation).
B. Hydrolysis - the breakdown of rock by acidic water to
produce clay and
soluble salts.

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 C. Oxidation - is the reaction of a substance with oxygen. The
breakdown of rock
by oxygen and water, often giving iron-rich rocks a rusty-
colored weathered
surface.
D. Acid Rain-Acids react with rock and strip away essential
chemicals from the
structure of minerals that rocks are made of. Acids are
particularly effective
at removing calcium from minerals.
E. Carbonation-is a type of chemical weathering. It is the
process of combining
water with carbon dioxide to make carbonic acid. This is
important in making
caves. Dissolved carbon dioxide in water or moist air forms
carbonic acid, and
this acid reacts to minerals in rocks.

Factors that Affect the Rate of

Weathering
1. Properties of the Parent Rock
The mineralogy and structure of rock affect it’s
susceptibility to weathering.
Different minerals weather at different rates

2. Climate
This is the most important factor affecting the weathering
of rocks. The extent of
weathering is dependent on the average atmospheric
condition prevailing in a region
over a long period

3. Soil
Affect the rate in which rock weathers. Soils retain
rainwater so that rocks covered
by soil are subjected to chemical reactions with water
much longer than rocks not
covered by soil.

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 4. Length of Exposure
The longer a rock is exposed to the agents of weathering,
the greater the degree of
alteration, dissolution, and physical breakup. Lava flows
that are quickly buried by
subsequent lava flows are less likely to be weathered than
a flow that remains
exposed to the elements for long periods.

Importance of weathering
1. most important in the formation of soils

2. major forces that shape the Earth’s surface

3. an important part of the rock cycle

4. provides the sediments that form sedimentary rocks

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