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Lecture No. 3-Final
Lecture No. 3-Final
• Video Link
• Weathering occurs through two main agents
• MECHANICAL AGENTS.
• CHEMICAL AGENTS.
• MECHANICAL WEATHERING
• processes that break a rock or mineral into smaller pieces “without
altering its chemical composition”.
• CHEMICAL WEATHERING
• Processes that “change the chemical composition” of rocks and
minerals..
• Formation of rocks and minerals with different chemical
composition as compared to the parent rocks or minerals.
• PROCESSES AND AGENTS
• Frost wedging
• Thermal expansion and contraction
• Mechanical exfoliation
• Abrasion by wind, water or gravity
• Plant growth
• FROST WEDGING
Ice crystals
• THERMAL EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION
Wind Abrasion
• ABRASION BY WIND, WATER OR GRAVITY
Water Abrasion
• ABRASION BY WIND, WATER OR GRAVITY
• As the roots increase in size, they force the rock sections apart,
increasing the separation and weathering the rocks.
• PLANT GROWTH
• PLANT GROWTH
• PROCESSES AND AGENTS
• Dissolving (dissolution)
• Oxidation
• Hydrolysis
• Living organisms
• DISSOLVING (DISSOLUTION)
• Water, often containing acid from dissolved carbon dioxide, will
dissolve minerals from a rock body leaving cavities in the rock.
These cavities may generate sinkholes or cave features such as
stalactites and stalagmites.
DISSOLVING (DISSOLUTION)
SINKHOLES
• DISSOLVING (DISSOLUTION)
Pyrite
Pyrite Oxidation
Limonite
• HYDROLYSIS
• Minerals may chemically combine with water to form new
minerals. Again these are generally not as hard as the original
material.
• HYDROLYSIS
Feldspar Hydrolysis
Feldspar Kaolinite (clay)
• LIVING ORGANISMS
• Lichens that grow on rocks produce weak acids that chemically
weather rock
FACTORS IN CHEMICAL WEATHERING
• Climate
– wet and warm maximizes chemical reactions
• Plants and animals
– living organisms secrete substances that react with rock
• Time
– longer contact means greater change
• Mineral composition
– some minerals are more susceptible to change than others
Factors Affecting Weathering
Mineral Content *Surface Area
• WATER
Rain
Streams and rivers
Ocean dynamics
Ice in glaciers
• WIND
• GRAVITY
AGENTS OF EROSION TRANSPORT
• WATER
Rain
Rain droplets would cause the eroded material to detach
from the source and move along the surface flow and deposit
in different locations.
AGENTS OF EROSION TRANSPORT
• WATER
Streams and rivers
When sediments
are weathered
they may be
transported
downward by
gravity as a
Slump.
AGENTS OF EROSION TRANSPORT
Scree field
• GRAVITY
Loose
sediments
transported
by gravity
are called
scree.
• Classification of discontinuities
• Thin and thick bedded rock masses.
• Geological classification