Everyone needs to grab one

Snickers on their way in.

Please, DO NOT EAT

IT….YET.
Eating a Snickers is similar to how Rocks on
Planet Earth Break Down

?
Geography 1040: Planet Earth
 How is a Snickers Bar like Rocks
and Landforms on Earth?
• Made up of many ingredients (peanuts, nuget, chocolate); rocks are
made up of different minerals.
• Shape of the snickers bar is created under heat and pressure, rocks
and landforms are created via Endogenic (internal) processes
(Volcanism, Tectonic Uplift)
• When you eat a snickers you: chew, salivate, and swallow. Exogenic
(external) Processes break up rocks in the landscape
 By Investigating How you eat a Snickers
Bar we can Understand How Landforms
Denude
• Denudation: any process that wears away or
rearranges landforms
• Major denudation processes: weathering, mass
movement, erosion, transportation and
deposition
• There is a Dynamic equilibrium between
Endogenic and Exogenic processes
• They are occurring at the same time!
Exogenic Process: Denudation
Rocks at Earth’s Surface are Denuded
First by Weathering
• Weathering: disintegrates upper rock surface
(regolith) into mineral particles, or dissolves
them into water
• Weathering does not transport materials, it just
loosens material to be later transported by
water, wind, waves and ice
• Physical (or mechanical) and Chemical
weathering differ
 The Snickers Challenge
1. WHEN INSTRUCTED place the snickers bar
into your mouth
2. DO NOT CHEW IT!!
1. Your saliva is chemically dissolving the candy =
Chemical Weathering
3. When instructed, begin chewing
1. Your teeth are breaking the candy into smaller
chunks = Physical Weathering
4. Swallow and Enjoy!=Transportation
5. Later in the Day you will “deposit” the
Snickers elsewhere= Deposition
 How Difficult (or easy) it is to Eat
Different Types of Candy?
• Your ability to eat (Snickers,
gum, tootsie roll, Gobstoppers)
depends on the properties of each
candy
• Weathering is greatly influenced
by the character of the bedrock
– Joints: fractures or separations in
the rock make it more susceptible to
weathering
Physical and Chemical Weathering breaks up
Bedrock in to small pieces which mixes with
organics to form Regolith
 External Influences to Weathering Rates

• Climate: chemical weathering intensified in

warmer, wetter climates.
• Physical Weathering is more prominent in dry,
cool climates
• Slope Aspect: controls slopes exposure to
wind, sun, and precipitation
• Vegetation: plant roots (physical) and organic
acids (chemical)
*Important to know for field trip
 Physical Weathering is like chewing a
Snickers Bar

• Breaks up rock leaving more surface area for

Chemical weathering to take place
1. Frost Action
2. Crystallization
3. Pressure Release Jointing
Physical Weathering: Frost Action
• When water freezes it’s volume
expands 9%
• Expansion and subsequent
melting creates: freeze thaw
action
• Repeated freezing (expansion)
and thawing (contraction) breaks
rocks apart
• Important in microthermal and
polar/ highland climate regions
 Physical Weathering: Frost Action
• Freeze thaw action
begins in existing joints
or fractures
• Frost wedging pushes
these fractures open
further
• Along cliffs loosened
pieces of rock fall and
form talus slopes
Frost Wedging and Talus Slopes
Physical Weathering: Frost Action
 Physical Weathering: Frost Action
• Pioneers in the early American west used frost
wedging to quarry rock
• Frost action damages roads causing pot holes

• Spring is the most dangerous time for rock falls in

steep terrains due to frost wedging
 Physical Weathering: Crystallization
• Crystallization:
evaporation of moisture
leaves crystals in rocks
which exert force to break
mineral grains
• Especially prevalent in
arid climates where dry
weather draws moisture
to the surface of rocks
Physical Weathering: Crystallization
 Physical Weathering: Pressure Release Jointing
• Pressure Release Jointing: when buried
rock (under pressure) is exposed and
the pressure released
– Rock slowly heaves up and outward
and layers peel off like an onion
– Occurs to laccoliths, batholiths and
plutons
• Sheeting: slabs or rock weather off and
erode away
• Exfoliation domes: arch and dome
shaped features
Physical Weathering: Pressure Release Jointing
Physical Weathering: Pressure Release Jointing
Half Dome

Figure 13.11
Chemical Weathering is like your
Saliva Dissolving the Snickers bar
• Actual chemical change in the
composition of minerals in the
rock; reactions between air, water,
and minerals
• As temperature and precipitation
increase, so does Chemical
weathering
1. Hydration and Hydrolysis
2. Oxidation
3. Carbonation
 Chemical Weathering: Hydration and
Hydrolysis
• Hydration: water combines with a mineral
• This can lead to expansion forcing grains apart
– Cycle of hydration and dehydration can lead to
disintegration of rock
• Hydrolysis: minerals chemically react with water,
decomposes the silicates in rocks
– Weaker minerals break down and the rock fails
• Rocks may appear etched, corroded, and
softened
Chemical Weathering: Hydration
Chemical Weathering: Hydrolysis
 Chemical Weathering: Oxidation
• Oxidation: when
certain metallic
elements come into
contact with Oxygen
to form oxides.
• The rusting of iron in
rocks or soil
produces a reddish
brown color
 Chemical Weathering: Carbonation
• Carbonation: carbon
(dissolved in the rain) reacts
with rock minerals
– Rain attacks minerals “acid
rain”
– Acid rain has increased with
human outputs of CO2
– Evident in the pitted and worn
marble and limestone
tombstones
Chemical Weathering: Carbonation
 Physical And Chemical Weathering
• Some factors in the environment act
on bedrock in a combination of ways
• The following breakdown rock
through both Physical And Chemical
Weathering:
1. Lichen: A fungus, that forms a
crust like or branching growth on
rocks
2. Trees/Vegetation
3. Animals
 Physical/Chemical Weathering:
Lichen
•Live on the surface and
can bore into the rock
(physical weathering)
•Accelerate chemical
weathering
Physical/Chemical Weathering: Vegetation

• Plant roots mechanically

break apart rocks
(physical)
• Respiration from plant
roots releases carbon
dioxide (chemical)
• Changes Soil pH
(Chemical)
Physical &Chemical Weathering: Vegetation
Physical &Chemical Weathering: Animals
• Animals mechanically
move rock and soil
(physical)
• They redistribute minerals
to create chemical reactions
• They aerate the soil and
allow for moisture to
penetrate (more chemical
weathering)
Name Physical Chemical Definition Evidence
Frost Action X Repeated freezing (expansion) Large linear
and thawing (contraction) fractures, talus
breaks rocks apart slopes
Crystallization X Crystals in rocks which exert Crumbling
force to break mineral grains surface rock
Pressure X When pressure releases rock Domes, and
Release heaves up and outward layers onion layer
Jointing exfoliate shedding
Hydration and X Water combines with a Tiny cracks and
Hydrolysis mineral, expansion forcing crumbling
grains apart
Oxidation X Metallic elements come in to Reddish rust
contact with Oxygen color of rocks
Carbonation X Minerals chemically react with Etched corroded
water, decomposes the silicates or softened rocks
in rocks
Lichen X X Surface and subsurface Lichen on rocks
Trees/Veg X X Tree roots, changes in PH Trees roots
Animals X X Movement of Soil and Burrows, holes
introduction of water
Eating a Snickers is Similar to how Rocks
on Planet Earth Break Down

?1. Both involve physical and chemical

weathering
2. Endogenic and exogenic processes
on earth are a dynamic equilibrium
3. REMEMBER: Physical and
Chemical weathering occur
simultaneously