Exogenic Process

Physical Weathering
▪ (or mechanical weathering) disintegrates rocks, breaking them into smaller pieces.
▪ there is only changes in physical appearance and no change in chemical composition,

2
Weathering
▪ occurs as a response to the low pressure, low temperature, and
water and oxygen-rich nature of the Earth’s surface.

3
Types of Weathering
▪ Physical Weathering- There
▪ Chemical Weathering
▪ Biotic Weathering

4
Processes to the
Mechanical
Disintegration of
Rocks:
5
▪ Frost wedging- when water gets inside the joints, alternate
freezing and thawing episodes pry the rock apart.
▪ Salt crystal growth- force exerted by salt crystal that formed
as water evaporates from pore spaces or cracks in rocks can
cause the rock to fall apart.
▪ Abrasion – wearing away of rocks by constant collision of
loose particles
▪ Biological activity – plants and animals as agents of
mechanical weathering
6
Chemical Weathering
▪ decomposes rocks through chemical reactions that change the
original rock-forming minerals.

7
Major Processes of
Chemical Weathering :
8
▪ Dissolution – dissociation of molecules into ions;
common example includes dissolution of calcite and
salt.
▪ Oxidation- reaction between minerals and oxygen
dissolved in water.
▪ Hydrolysis- change in the composition of minerals
when they react with water.

9
Factors that affect the
type, extent, and rate
at which weathering
takes
place:
10
Climate
▪ areas that are cold and dry tend to have slow rates of chemical
weathering and weathering is mostly physical; chemical
weathering is most active in areas with high temperature and
rainfall.

11
Rock type
▪ the minerals that constitute rocks have different susceptibilities to
weathering. Those that are most stable to surface conditions will
be the most resistant to weathering. Thus, olivine for example
which crystallizes at high temperature conditions will weather
first than quartz which crystallizes at lower temperature
conditions.

12
Rock structure
▪ rate of weathering is affected by the presence of joints, folds,
faults, bedding planes through which agents of weathering enter a
rock mass. Highly-jointed/fractured rocks disintegrate faster than
a solid mass of rock of the same dimension.

13
Topography
▪ weathering occurs more quickly on a steep slope than on a gentle
one.

14
Thanks!
15