Quick Rock Cycle Review!! 

​🎬

Weathering is...

Earth Science

Weathering

• a slow and subtle process

• a basic part of the rock cycle

• life-sustaining

• a contributer to the formation of Earth's scenery​

• a cause of deterioration​

​Click here for more info!

​🎬

Weathering

Weathering occurs when...

​

• rock is mechanically fragmented (disintegrated)

• rock is chemically altered (decomposed)

Important physcial processes that lead to the fragmentation of rock include: ​

Weathering

Mechanical Weathering

• 🎬frost wedging the mechanical breakup of rock caused by the expansion of freezing water in cracks and crevices

• 🎬 salt crystal growth sea spray or salty groundwater penetrates crevices and pore spaces in rock, as water evaporates salt crystals form, grow larger, and weaken rock by pushing apart surrounding grains or enlarging tiny cracks

• sheeting: splitting off of slablike sheets of rock

• biological activity: activites of organisms

Chemical Weathering

Weathering

​In chemical weathering the original rock decomposes into substances that are stable in the surface environment.

​

​

The products of chemical weathering will remain essentially unchanged as long as they remain in an environment similar to the one in which they are formed.​

🎬Click here for a short video!