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Chemical Weathering Processes Explained

Weathering is the breakdown of rocks through physical, chemical, and biological processes. It provides nutrients for plants, forms soil, and can damage buildings. Physical weathering occurs through freeze-thaw action and exfoliation. Chemical weathering involves carbonation, oxidation, and acid/carbon dioxide release. Biological weathering includes wedging by tree roots and release of acids by decaying plant matter. The rate of weathering depends on rock type, mineral composition, grain size, and presence of weaknesses in the rock.

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Zi Yan Hoon
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194 views1 page

Chemical Weathering Processes Explained

Weathering is the breakdown of rocks through physical, chemical, and biological processes. It provides nutrients for plants, forms soil, and can damage buildings. Physical weathering occurs through freeze-thaw action and exfoliation. Chemical weathering involves carbonation, oxidation, and acid/carbon dioxide release. Biological weathering includes wedging by tree roots and release of acids by decaying plant matter. The rate of weathering depends on rock type, mineral composition, grain size, and presence of weaknesses in the rock.

Uploaded by

Zi Yan Hoon
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Weathering

(the decay and disintegration of rocks in situ - without movement)

Importance
-provide nutreints for plants
-formation of most of the soil
-problems:damage buildings

Physical Chemical Biological

● Freeze-thaw action ● Carbonation ● Wedging effect of tree roots


- at night : water freezes and - weak acid form from rainwater - seeds and roots of tree find
expand, daytime : water thaw and carbon dioxide dissolves the their way into natural cracks in
limestone(calcium carbonate) and bedrock
- repeated freezing and thawing
washed away as solution
of water that trickles into cracks - the cracks widen and deepen
in the rocks causes the rocks to ● Oxidation when the seeds germinate and
expand roots get bigger
- additional of oxygen to a mineral
● Exfoliation in dry areas(oxic condition) ● Release of acid and carbon
dioxide to produce chemical
- onion skin effect : thick layers - opposite of oxidation is reduction
weathering
of rocks peel off due to diurnal which occurs in anoxic condition
temperature range and - decaying plant matter produces
- repeated oxidation and reduction
eventually form exfoliation dome chemical (humic acid and carbon
cause the rocks to disintegrate
dioxide)
- seen on crystalline rocks like
granite - chemical effect: carbonation
● Vegetation trapping water to
encourage chemical
weathering
- presence of water under a
How rock type affects weathering vegetation speed up the rate of
chemical reaction

The presence of lines of Mineral composition


Grain size of the rock
weakness

- natural cracks in rocks - bigger grains or crystals, - minerals are chemicals that form rocks
( joints, bedding planes and faster the rate of weathering - limestone: susceptible to carbonation
cleavage) - crystalline rocks (igneous - rocks (sandstones,shales):oxidation
- allows water to penetrate and metamorphic) have
the rocks and increase the greater resistance to physical - quartz: do not weather chemically
effect of weathering weathering than sedimentary - granite: breakdown easily in hot and
rocks due to greater strength wet climates
- control the size and shape
of interlocking
of the weathered fragments

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