Earth and Life Science
Whenever minerals are hydrolyzed, crystal
2.3-4 Describe how rocks undergo weathering. Explain how the products of
weathering are carried away by erosion and deposited elsewhere.
Exogenic processes - It is the processes which occur on earth’s surface due to the
influence of exogenic forces.
Exogenic forces - the forces w..hich derive their strength from the earth’s exterior or
originate within the earth’s atmosphere.
What is weathering?
Weathering is the mechanical and chemical hammer that breaks down and sculpts.
What are the two kinds of weathering?
1. Physical Weathering – also known as mechanical weathering. It refers to the
breakdown of rocks without a change in its composition.
2. Chemical Weathering – is the decomposition of rocks due to chemical reactions
occurring between the minerals in rocks and the environment.
What are the processes that can cause physical weathering?
1. Thermal and Pressure Change - Changes in temperature contribute to expansion
and contraction of the rocks. When the temperature of the rock rises, the rocks
expands and when the temperature of the rocks decreases, the rock contracts.
2. Freeze and Thaw - When water enters the rocks through the pores and cracks, it
freezes. Once the frozen water is within the rocks, it expands by about 10% thus
opening the cracks a bit wider.
3. Wind and Waves - Tiny grains of sand are picked up and carried off by the wind,
which are then blasted on the surface of rocks, smoothening them. This could wear
a rock and weather it. On the seashore, the action of waves chips away and cracks
the rocks.
4. Organic activity - Trees and other plants can wear away rocks when their roots
penetrate into the cracks in the rocks. As the roots get bigger, they exert pressure on
rocks and make the cracks wider and deeper, eventually breaking the rocks apart.
Burrowing animals such as moles, squirrels and rabbits loosen and disintegrate the
rocks in the soil.
What are the processes that can cause chemical weathering?
1. Hydration/Hydrolysis - It is the chemical reactions caused by water. Water reacts
with the rock and alters the size and chemical compositions of the minerals,
lessening their resistance to weathering.
rocks and clay minerals such as calcium, potassium, and sodium ions are produced.
2. Carbonation - Carbonation is the mixing of water with carbon dioxide to make
carbonic acid.
Carbonation takes place when the rock minerals react with weak carbonic acid
formed when water combines with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
*Rain water is naturally acidic because carbon dioxide gas chemically reacts with it
and produces carbonic acid, a weak acid, which reacts slowly with carbonate
mineral rocks.
3. Oxidation - It is also known as rusting. It is the process whereby the rock minerals
lose one or more ions or atoms in the presence of oxygen. When minerals in the
rock oxidize, they become less resistant to weathering. Oxygen combines with other
substances via the oxidation process giving rise to the ion or atom lose.
What is erosion?
Erosion involves the movement of the weathered rock (now soil, sand or pebbles)
from their site of weathering by the agents of erosion such as wind, moving water,
ice, and gravity.
*Erosion always follows after weathering.
*The main driving force behind all agents of erosion is gravity.
*Without gravity the other major natural agents of erosion such as: wind, running
water, glaciers, waves, and rain would not occur.
Transport makes erosion complete because it involves the movement of the eroded
materials and sediments.
a. Transport by Water
Rain water is the most important agent of erosion.
The movement of water is always from a higher level to a lower one in response to
gravitational force.
Water can carry almost any size of rocks.
The greater the volume of water and the steeper the slope, the bigger and more
rocks can be transported.
b. Transport by Wind
Wind continuously blows away loose particles of rocks and soil from place to place.