Gradational Processes

Geomorphic processes are all those physical and chemical changes which effect a modification of the earth's
surficial form.

A geomorphic agent or agency is any natural medium which is capable of securing and transporting earth
material (for example, surface water, groundwater, glaciers, wind).

 Most of the geomorphic agencies originate outside the earth's crust (termed as epigene by Lawson and as
exogenous by Penck) and are directed by the force of gravity. But gravity is not a geomorphic agent
(because it cannot secure and carry away materials), it is a directional force.
 Other geomorphic processes have their origin within the earth's crust (for example, vulcanism and
diastrophism) and were termed as hypogene by Lawson and as endogenous by Penck.

In Europe, Biidel (1944, 1948) has suggested the existence of formkreisen or what may be called
morphogenetic regions. The concept of a morphogenetic region is that under a certain set of climatic
conditions particular geomorphic processes will predominate and hence will give to the landscape of the region
characteristics that will set it off from those of other areas developed under different climatic conditions.
 Weathering

Epigene or Gradation
exogenous (Degradation + Mass wasting
processes Aggradation)
Erosion
Geomorphic
processes
Orogenic
Diastrophism
Hypogene or
endogenous Epeirogenic
processes
Vulcanism

Fig: An outline of the geomorphic processes (adapted from Thornbury, 1958)

 Gradation
• According to Chamberlin and Salisbury (1904), gradation include “all those processes which tend
to bring the surface of the lithosphere to a common level.” Gradational processes belong to two
categories - degradation (those which level down), and aggradation (those which level up). It
does not, however, encompass such activity as building up of a lava plateau through igneous
extrusion.
Terms like denudation and planation have also been used in the sense in which gradation is being used, but these
terms imply removal of material and not deposition.

Denudation
• (Latin ‘denudare’, meaning ‘to lay bare’)
• Includes all those processes that lower relief by mass wasting and erosion. It acts both chemically (also called
chemical weathering) and physically (also called mechanical weathering). Both chemical and physical processes
contribute to erosion; the process of obtaining material from one place (usually at a higher elevation) and
transporting it to another place, where deposition occurs.
• The conjoint action of weathering and erosion, which processes simultaneously wear away the land surface.

Planation
Implies that denudation continues until land is reduced to a low plain just above the base level of erosion, generally
the sea.

Cyclicity
Involves repeated planation reset to changed conditions.
Weathering
• Breakdown of rocks in place by mechanical disintegration and chemical
decomposition.

• The decay of rocks by biological, chemical, and mechanical agents with

little or no transport.

• Processes which act collectively at and near the earth's surface and reduce
solid rock masses to the clastic state.

• A static process and does not involve the seizure and removal of material by
a transporting agency.
Major factors influencing the type and rate of rock weathering are:

1) Rock structure (mineralogic composition; physical features as joints, bedding

planes, faults, fractures, and voids)

2) Climate (temperature, humidity)

3) Topography (affects the amount of rock exposure, and kind of precipitation,

temperatures, amount of vegetation)

4) Vegetation (by determining the extent of rock outcrops and the amount of
decaying organic matter from which carbon dioxide and humic acids may be
derived)
• The portion of the earth's crust in which this happens is called the zone of weathering.

• The position of the water table and the length of time that weathering has been in operation
have an important influence upon the depth to which some of the weathering processes may
extend.

• Most active chemical weathering takes place in the zone of aeration (the area above the water
table where the pore spaces are filled with air). Oxidation effects are seldom conspicuous
below this level, but solution and hydration may extend below it.
Weathering agents break up rocks in different ways, depending on how they penetrate the rocks.

JOINT-BLOCK DISINTEGRATION
When weathering agents penetrate
along joints in the rock, joint-block
disintegration breaks away large
boulders.

GRANULAR DISINTEGRATION

When weathering agents penetrate

microscopic openings between rock
crystals or grains, granular
disintegration breaks rocks into smaller
pieces.
Weathering debris

Weathering acts upon rocks to produce solid, colloidal, and soluble materials.

• Solids includes boulders, sands, silt, and clay.

• Solutes are ‘particles’ less than 1 nanometre (1 nm = 0.001 micrometre) in diameter that are highly
dispersed and exist in molecular solution.

• Colloids are particles of organic and mineral substances that range in size from 1 to 100 nm. They
normally exist in a highly dispersed state but may adopt a semi-solid form. Common colloids
produced by weathering are oxides and hydroxides of silicon, aluminium, and iron.
• Amorphous silica and opaline silica are colloidal forms of silicon dioxide.
• Gibbsite and boehmite are aluminium hydroxides.
• Hematite is an iron oxide and goethite a hydrous iron oxide.
Mechanical or physical weathering

• Mechanical processes reduce rocks into progressively smaller fragments.

• The disintegration increases the surface area exposed to chemical attack.

• The main processes of mechanical weathering are unloading, frost action,

thermal stress caused by heating and cooling, swelling and shrinking due to
wetting and drying, and pressures exerted by salt-crystal growth.

• A significant ingredient in mechanical weathering is fatigue (weakness or

tiredness), which is due to the repeated generation of stress, by for instance
heating and cooling, in a rock.
 Unloading
• When erosion removes surface material, the confining pressure on the underlying rocks is eased. The lower
pressure enables mineral grains to move further apart, creating voids, and the rock expands or dilates.

• The dilation produces fractures and joints that run parallel to the surface, which encourage rock falls and other
kinds of mass movement, and provide lines of weakness along which individual crystals or particles may
disintegrate and exfoliation may occur.

• Sheeting refers to the development of cracks and fractures parallel to the ground surface caused by removal of
superincumbent load resulting into reduction of confining pressure.

• Cambering process refers to fracturing of brittle sandstone beds along vertical joints due to expansion caused by
unloading of superincumbent load and consequent release of confining pressure.

• The process of spalling refers to the development of platy rock fragments, lozenge-shaped or irregular, in the
rocks due to unloading of superincumbent load.
 Frost action
• Freezing of water present in the pores within a soil or rock body builds up stress in the pores and fissures,
causing the physical disintegration of rocks.

• Frost weathering or frost shattering breaks off small grains and large boulders, the boulders then being
fragmented into smaller pieces.

• It is an important process in cold environments, where freeze–thaw cycles are common.

• Furthermore, if water-filled fissures and pores freeze rapidly at the surface, the expanding ice induces a
hydrostatic or cryostatic pressure that is transmitted with equal intensity through all the interconnected hollow
spaces to the still unfrozen water below. The force produced is large enough to shatter rocks, and the process is
called hydrofracturing. It means that frost shattering can occur below the depth of frozen ground.

• Ice segregation, the formation of discrete bodies of ground ice in cold-environment soils, may lead to bedrock
fracture.
Frost cracking

Unlike most other liquids, water

expands when it freezes. Under
proper conditions, the expansion of
freezing water can fragment rocks,
in a frost action process called frost
cracking.
 Heating and cooling
• Rocks have low thermal conductivities, which means that they are not good at conducting heat away from their
surfaces. When they are heated, the outer few millimetres become much hotter than the inner portion and the
outsides expand more than the insides.

• In addition, in rocks composed of crystals of different colours, the darker crystals warm up faster and cool down
more slowly than the lighter crystals.

• All these thermal stresses may cause rock disintegration and the formation of rock flakes, shells, and huge
sheets. Repeated heating and cooling produce a fatigue effect, which enhances the thermal weathering or
thermoclasty.

• Insolation weathering is dirt cracking (dirt = a filthy or soiling substance such as mud, dust or grime) whereing
the boulders containing ‘dirt’ are fractured and split due to thermal expansion and contraction.

• The breaking of outer shells of heated rocks into small fragments due to sudden light showers in hot climatic
regions mainly in hot deserts is called shattering.
 Exfoliation or onion
peeling weathering
Exfoliation weathering, also known as onion
peeling weathering, refers to peeling of
concentric shells of rocks due to combined
actions of heat and wind in the hot arid and
semi-arid regions and monsoon lands. It is
more common over crystalline rocks. The outer
shells of rocks become loose due to alternate
expansion and contraction due to high
temperature during day time and comparatively
low temperature during night respectively and
these loosed shells are removed (peeled off) by
strong winds. Differential heating of outer and
lower shells of a rock mass causes flaking.
• Kanke dome near Ranchi is a fine example
of exfoliation weathering.
 Wetting and drying
• Some clay minerals, including smectite and vermiculite, swell upon wetting and
shrink when they dry out.

• Materials containing these clays, such as mudstone and shale, expand considerably
on wetting, inducing microcrack formation, the widening of existing cracks, or the
disintegration of the rock mass. Upon drying, the absorbed water of the expanded
clays evaporates, and shrinkage cracks form.

• Alternate swelling and shrinking associated with wetting-drying cycles, in

conjunction with the fatigue effect, leads to wet–dry weathering, or slaking, which
physically disintegrates rocks.
 Salt-crystal growth

• In coastal and arid regions, crystals may grow in saline solutions on evaporation.

• Salt crystallizing within the interstices of rocks produces stresses, which widen
them, and this leads to granular disintegration. This process is known as salt
weathering or haloclasty.
Chemical weathering

• Chemical weathering involves a huge number of chemical reactions

acting together upon many different types of rock under the full gamut
of climatic conditions.

• Main chemical reactions are engaged in rock decomposition: solution,

hydration, oxidation and reduction, carbonation, hydrolysis, and
chelation.
 Solution
• Solution refers to the dissolution of soluble particles and minerals from the rocks with the help of
water in motion but a thin film of water around a solid particle also leads to chemical dissolution.

• It involves the dissociation of the molecules into their anions (negatively-charged ions) and cations
(positively-charged ions) and each ion becomes surrounded by water.

• Minerals vary in their solubility. The most soluble natural minerals are chlorides of the alkali metals:
rock salt or halite (NaCl) and potash salt (KCl). These are found only in very arid climates. Gypsum
(CaSO4.2H2O) is also fairly soluble. Quartz has a very low solubility. The solubility of many minerals
depends upon the number of free hydrogen ions in the water, which may be measured as the pH
value.

• Ex. = Dissolution of calcium carbonate to form bicarbonate.

CaCO3 + H2O + CO2 → Ca(HCO3)2

 Hydration
• Hydration is transitional between chemical and mechanical weathering.

• It occurs when minerals absorb water molecules on their edges and surfaces, or, for simple salts, in
their crystal lattices, without otherwise changing the chemical composition of the original material.

• For instance, if water is added to anhydrite, which is calcium sulphate (CaSO4), gypsum
(CaSO4.2H2O) is produced. The water in the crystal lattice leads to an increase of volume, which may
cause hydration folding in gypsum sandwiched between other beds.

• The process of hydration changes feldspar minerals into kaolinite clays, the process being known as
kaolinization.

• Under humid mid-latitude climates, brownish to yellowish soil colours are caused by the hydration of
the reddish iron oxide hematite to rust-coloured goethite.

• The taking up of water by clay particles is also a form of hydration. It leads to the clay’s swelling
when wet.
 Oxidation and reduction
• Oxidation simply means a reaction of atmospheric oxygen to form oxides.

• It occurs when an atom or an ion loses an electron, increasing its positive charge or decreasing its
negative charge.

• Oxygen dissolved in water is a prevalent oxidizing agent in the environment.

• Oxidation weathering chiefly affects minerals containing iron, though such elements as manganese,
sulphur, and titanium may also be oxidized.

• The oxidation of iron-bearing rocks produces rust in the following manner:

4Fe2 + 3O2 + 2e → 2Fe2O3 [e = electron]

• Reduction is the opposite of oxidation, and the changes it promotes are called gleying. In colour, gley
soil horizons are commonly a shade of grey.
 Carbonation
• Carbonation is the formation of carbonates, which are the salts of carbonic acid (H2CO3).

• The reversible reaction combines natural water with carbon dioxide to form carbonic acid, which then
dissociates into a hydrogen ion and a bicarbonate ion.

• Carbonic acid attacks minerals, forming carbonates.

• Carbonation dominates the weathering of calcareous rocks (limestones and dolomites) where the main
mineral is calcite or calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Calcite reacts with carbonic acid to form calcium
hydrogen carbonate (Ca(HCO3)2) that, unlike calcite, is readily dissolved in water. This is why some
limestones are so prone to solution.

• In essence, the process may be written:

CaCO + H O + CO ⇔ Ca HCO
 Hydrolysis
• In hydrolysis, water splits into hydrogen cations (H+) and hydroxyl anions (OH–) and reacts directly
with silicate minerals in rocks and soils.

• The hydrogen ion is exchanged with a metal cation of the silicate minerals, commonly potassium
(K+), sodium (Na+), calcium (Ca2+), or magnesium (Mg2+). The released cation then combines with
the hydroxyl anion.

• Ex. = Hydrolysis of orthoclase:

2KAlSi3O8 + 2H+ 2OH– → 2HAlSi3O8 + 2KOH

• So the orthoclase is converted to aluminosilicic acid, and potassium hydroxide, which are unstable
and react further. The potassium hydroxide will be carbonated to potassium carbonate.

2KOH + H2CO3 → K2CO3 + 2H2O

• The potassium carbonate so formed is soluble in and removed by water. The aluminosilicic acid
reacts with water to produce kaolinite, and silicic acid.
2HAlSi3O8 + 9H2O → Al2Si2O5(OH)4 + 2H4SiO4
• The silicic acid is soluble in and removed by water leaving kaolinite as a residue, a process termed
desilication as it involves the loss of silicon. If the solution equilibrium of the silicic acid changes,
then silicon dioxide (silica) may be precipitated out of the solution:
H4SiO4 → 2H2O + SiO2
• Weathering of rock by hydrolysis may be complete or partial. Complete hydrolysis or allitization
produces gibbsite. Partial hydrolysis produces either 1:1 clays by a process called
monosiallitization, or 2:1 and 2:2 clays through a process called bisiallitization.

• Dissolution is just when something (like salt or sugar) dissolves in water, but no new chemical
substances are made.
• Hydration is the chemical process in which water molecules attach with a substance.
• Hydrolysis is a double decomposition reaction with which water is one of the reactants.
 Chelation
• It is a complex organic process by which metallic cations are incorporated into hydrocarbon
molecules.

• It means holding of an ion, usually a metal, within a ring structure of organic origin.

• This is the removal of metal ions, and in particular ions of aluminium, iron, and manganese, from
solids by binding with such organic acids as fulvic and humic acid to form soluble organic matter-
metal complexes.

• The chelating agents are in part the decomposition products of plants and in part secretions from plant
roots.

• We may safely say that chelation is a form of chemical weathering by plants. Plants extract minerals
of say nutrients from the soils with the result mineral lattice are disrupted and crystal lattices are
fragmented and thus mineral weathering takes place at a much faster rate.
 Biological weathering
• Faunal weathering: burrowing animals and worms

• Floral weathering

• Anthropogenic weathering

This aerial view shows the impact

of strip mining on the landscape at
Samples Mine in West Virginia.
Mass-wasting
• Involves the bulk transfer of masses of rock debris down slopes under the direct
influence of gravity.

• Usually aided by the presence of water, but the water is not in such an amount as
to be considered a transporting medium (as stream erosion).

• Mass wasting - all processes by which masses of rock and soil move downhill
under the influence of gravity, eventually to be carried away by other transporting
agents.

• Mass movement - a general term used to describe the downhill movement of

unconsolidated material .that are known as slides, falls, slumps, flows, and creep.
Sharpe (1938) recognized four classes of mass-wasting, which he designated as slow flowage, rapid
flowage, landslides, and subsidence.

Mass-wasting

Slow flowage Rapid flowage

Landslides Subsidence
types types

Creep Solifluction Earthflow Debris slide Debris fall

Soil creep Talus creep Mudflow Rockslide Rockfall

Rock-glacier Debris
Rock creep Slump
creep avalanche

Fig: Classification of mass-movements by Sharpe (1938) (adapted from Thornbury, 1958)

Slow flowage types

• Creep: the slow movement downslope of soil and rock debris which is
usually not perceptible except through extended observation.

• Soil creep: downslope movement of soil.

• Talus creep: downslope movement of talus or scree (the accumulation of angular rock
fragments derived from steep rock slopes or cliffs by the mechanical weathering of
the rock mass).
• Rock creep: downslope movement of individual rock blocks.
• Rock-glacier creep: downslope movement of tongues of rock waste.

• Solifluction: the slow-flowing downslope of masses of rock debris which

are saturated with water and not confined to definite channels.
Rapid flowage types

• Earthflow: the movement of water-saturated clayey or silty earth

material down low-angle terraces or hillsides.

• Mudflow: slow to very rapid movement of water-saturated rock debris

down definite channels.

• Debris avalanche: a flowing slide of rock debris in narrow tracks down

steep slopes.
Earthflow
In an earthflow, saturated soil, regolith,
or clay-rich bedrock moves downhill as
a mass of thick, flowing mud. A bowl or
depression develops at the head, and a
spreading toe marks the depositional
area. Between the two ends, the flow has
an hourglass shape.
The conditions which favour rapid mass-wasting were divided by Sharpe (1938) into passive and
activating or initiating causes.

Passive causes include:

i. Lithologic factors; unconsolidated or weak materials or those which become slippery
and act as lubricants when wet
ii. Stratigraphic factors; laminated or thinly bedded rock and alternating weak and strong
or permeable and impermeable beds
iii. Structural factors; closely spaced joints, faults, crush zones, shear and foliation planes,
and steeply dipping beds
iv. Topographic factors; steep slopes or vertical cliffs
v. Climatic factors; large diurnal and annual range of temperature with high frequency of
freeze and thaw, abundant precipitation, and torrential rains
vi. Organic factors; scarcity of vegetation.

Activating causes are:

i. Removal of support through natural or artificial means
ii. Oversteepening of slopes by running water
iii. Overloading through water saturation or by artificial fills.
Landslides
Those types of movement that are perceptible and involve relatively dry masses of earth debris.

• Slump: the downward slipping of one or several units of rock debris usually with a backward
rotation with respect to the slope over which movement take place.

• Debris slide: the rapid rolling or sliding of unconsolidated earth debris without backward rotation
of the mass.

• Debris fall: the nearly free fall of earth debris from a vertical or overhanging face.

• Rockslide: the sliding or falling of individual rock masses down bedding, joint or fault surfaces.

• Rockfall: the free falling of rock blocks over any steep slope.
Falls involve the detachment, fall, rolling, and bouncing of rock, ice, or soil fragments, singly or in clusters, usually
from a steep slope.

Two chief subtypes of slides are rotational slides and translational slides. Rotational slides, also called slumps,
occur along concave shear planes, normally under conditions of low to moderate water content, and are commonest
on thick, uniform materials such as clays. Translational slides occur along planar shear planes and include rock
planar slides (block slides) and various types of soil slide.

Spreads occur when a cohesive rock or soil mass becomes liquefied owing to saturation or partial saturation.

Flows involve shear through the soil, rock, or snow and ice debris as it moves over a rigid bed. Rock avalanches,
sometimes called sturzstrom (meaning rock slide stream), are the very rapid, massive, flow-like motion of
fragmented rock from a large rock slide or rock fall, often down mountainsides. Flows of soil go by various names,
depending upon the material involved and its moisture status: dry flow, flowslide, debris flow, mud flow, debris
flood, debris avalanche, earthflow, and peat flow. A debris flow is a fast-moving body of sediment particles with
water or air or both that often has the consistency of wet cement. Mud flows triggered by water saturating the
debris on the sides of volcanoes are called lahars.
Fig.: Rockfall in cliffs near Burton Bradstock, Dorset, England.

Fig.: Shallow rotational landslide, Rockies foothills, Wyoming, USA.

Subsidence

Downward displacement of surficial earth material without a free

surface and horizontal displacement.
Erosion
• Latin ‘erodere/erosus’, meaning ‘to gnaw/eaten away’.

• The various ways by which the mobile agencies obtain and remove rock debris.

• Weathering weaken the rocks and makes them more permeable, so rendering them more
vulnerable to removal by agents of erosion, and the removal of weathered products
exposes more rock to weathering.

• Of course, weathering may make erosion easier, but it is not prerequisite to nor
necessarily followed by erosion.

• Weathering can take place without subsequent erosion, and erosion is possible without
previous weathering.