Exogenic Processes: Weathering

EXOGENIC
PROCESSES
Weathering
WEATHERING
Weathering
– Weathering occurs as a
response to the low pressure,
low temperature, and water
and oxygen-rich nature of the
Earth’s surface.
How many types of
weathering are there?
There are 2 types of
weathering.
Physical weathering
– physically broken into smaller pieces due
to any force (natural or anthropogenic)
without any alteration of its composition
– Physical weathering (or mechanical
weathering) disintegrates rocks, breaking
them into smaller pieces.
Under
physical/mechanical
weathering
Frost wedging
– when water gets inside the joints, alternate
freezing and thawing episodes pry the rock apart.
Abrasion
– wearing away of rocks
by constant collision of
loose particles
Biological activity
– plants and animals as
agents of mechanical
weathering
Salt crystal growth
– force exerted by salt crystal that
formed as water evaporates from
pore spaces or cracks in rocks can
cause the rock to fall apart.
Chemical weathering
– Chemical weathering decomposes rocks
through chemical reactions that change
the original rock-forming minerals.
Under chemical
weathering
Dissolution
– dissociation of molecules into ions;
common example includes
dissolution of calcite and salt
Oxidation
– reaction between minerals and
oxygen dissolved in water.
Hydrolysis
– change in the composition of
minerals when they react with
water.
Physical weathering and
chemical weathering almost
always occur together in nature
and reinforce each other.
FACTORS THAT AFFECT THE
TYPE, EXTENT, AND RATE
AT WHICH WEATHERING
TAKES PLACE:
Climate
– areas that are cold and dry tend to
have slow rates of chemical
weathering and weathering is
mostly physical; chemical
weathering is most active in areas
with high temperature and rainfall
Rock type
– the minerals that constitute rocks have different
susceptibilities to weathering. Those that are
most stable to surface conditions will be the
most resistant to weathering. Thus, olivine for
example which crystallizes at high temperature
conditions will weather first than quartz which
crystallizes at lower temperature conditions.
Topography
– weathering occurs more
quickly on a steep slope
than on a gentle one.
Time
– length of exposure to agents of
weather determines the degree
of weathering of a rock.
Rock structure
– rate of weathering is affected by the
presence of joints, folds, faults, bedding
planes through which agents of
weathering enter a rock mass. Highly-
jointed/fractured rocks disintegrate faster
than a solid mass of rock of the same
dimension.
Differentiate
EROSION &
DEPOSITION
Erosion
– the incorporation and

transportation of material
by a mobile agent such as
water, wind, or ice.
Deposition
– the geological process in which sediments,
soil and rocks are added to a landform or land
mass. Wind, ice, water, and gravity transport
previously weathered surface material, which,
at the loss of enough kinetic energy in the
fluid, is deposited, building up layers of
sediment.
WEATHERING VS.
EROSION
– Weathering occurs in situ, that is,
particles stay put and no movement is
involved. As soon as the weathering
product starts moving (due to fluid flow)
we call the process erosion.
WEATHERING VS.
EROSION
– Weathering, erosion/transportation, and
deposition are exogenic processes that
act in concert, but in differing relative
degrees, to bring about changes in the
configuration of the Earth’s surface.
AGENTS OF
EROSION
1. Running water
– Running water can pick up rocks and

move them downstream. The erosion in
running water creates river deltas.
– encompass both overland flow and
stream flow.
Overland Flow Stream Flow
1. Running water
– Styles of erosion:
– Vertical erosion (downcutting)
– lateral erosion
– headward erosion
Vertical Erosion
Lateral Erosion
Headward Erosion
1. Running water
– Streams transport their sediment load in three ways:
– in solution (dissolved load),
– in suspension (suspended load),
– sliding and rolling along the bottom (bed load)
FACTORS THAT AFFECT STREAM
EROSION AND DEPOSITION
– Velocity – dictates the ability of stream to erode and

transport; controlled by gradient, channel size and shape,
channel roughness, and the amount of water flowing in
the channel
– Discharge – volume of water passing through a cross-
section of a stream during a given time; as the discharge
increases, the width of the channel, the depth of flow, or
flow velocity increase individually or simultaneously
2. Ocean or sea waves
– Waves can also move sediments. Everyday
the water moves pebbles onto or off the
shores.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE
HEIGHT, LENGTH, AND PERIOD OF A
WAVE.
– Wind speed; wind duration; fetch
(distance the wind has travelled across
water).
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE
HEIGHT, LENGTH, AND PERIOD OF A
WAVE.
– ii. Orbital motion of water in waves (n deep water, there is
little or no orbital motion at depths greater than half the
wavelength. As a wave moves into shallower water, it starts
to ‘feel bottom’ at a depth equal to the wave base).
3. Glaciers
– Glaciers pick up rocks and move them

around as glaciers . The erosion traps the
rocks and sometimes scrape the Earth’s
surface, creating land forms like valleys.
Types of glaciers:
– i. Valley (alpine) glaciers — bounded by valleys and tend to be
long and narrow
– ii. Ice sheets (continental glaciers) — cover large areas of the
land surface; unconfined by topography. Modern ice sheets
cover Antarctica and Greenland
– iii. Ice shelves — sheets of ice floating on water and attached
to the land. They usually occupy coastal embayments.
Valley (alpine) glaciers
Ice sheets (continental
glaciers)
Ice Shelves
–
4. Wind
– Erosion can also happen when the

wind picks up small and moves
them. (e.g. Sandstorm).
– Wind erodes by: deflation
(removal of loose, fine particles
from the surface), and abrasion
(grinding action and sandblasting)
5. Groundwater
– The main erosional process associated with groundwater
is solution. Slow-moving groundwater cannot erode rocks
by mechanical processes, as a stream does, but it can
dissolve rocks and carry these off in solution. This process
is particularly effective in areas underlain by soluble rocks,
such as limestone, which readily undergoes solution in the
presence of acidic water.
5. Groundwater
– Rainwater reacts with carbon dioxide from
atmosphere and soil to form a solution of dilute
carbonic acid. This acidic water then percolates
through fractures and bedding planes, and
slowly dissolves the limestone by forming
soluble calcium bicarbonate which is carried
away in solution.
KARST TOPOGRAPHY
– Karst topography — a distinctive type of landscape which
develops as a consequence of subsurface solution. It
consists of an assemblage of landforms that is most
common in carbonate rocks, but also associated with
soluble evaporate deposits.
KARST TOPOGRAPHY
– (1) Cave/Cavern – forms when circulating
groundwater at or below the water table dissolves
carbonate rock along interconnected fractures and
bedding planes. A common feature found in caverns is
dripstone, which is deposited by the dripping of water
containing calcium carbonate. Dripstone features are
collectively called speleothems, and include
stalactites, stalagmites, and columns
KARST TOPOGRAPHY
– (2) Sinkholes (Dolines) – circular

depressions which form through
dissolution of underlying soluble rocks or
the collapse of a cave’s roof.
– (3) Tower karst – tall, steep-sided hills
created in highly eroded karst regions.
6. Gravity
– Mass wasting — the downslope movement of soil, rock,
and regolith under the direct influence of gravity.

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EXOGENIC

– the incorporation and

– Running water can pick up rocks and

– Velocity – dictates the ability of stream to erode and

– Glaciers pick up rocks and move them

– Erosion can also happen when the

– (2) Sinkholes (Dolines) – circular

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