List Four Causes of Weathering

The primary agents in chemical weathering are water, oxygen, and acids.

Water is the most important agent of chemical weathering. Two other important agents of chemical weathering are carbon dioxide and oxygen.

• Frost Weathering. Frost weathering occurs in the presence of water, particularly in areas where the temperature is near the freezing point of water.
• Thermal Stress. Thermal stress occurs when heat absorbed from the surrounding air causes a rock to expand.
• Salt Wedging.
• Biological Weathering.

Positive Impacts • The weathering of rocks helps to form the basic component of soil. Soil is very essential for Human Activities . It enables farming for food crops. Humans cause increases in acid rain and pollution, which increase the amount of weathering agents in the air and water, and then on land.

Weathering damages national monuments, historic buildings and landmarks. It causes rust, cracks, crumbling and other imperfections to stone, marble, wood and other materials. Mechanical weathering breaks rocks into smaller pieces.

The Earth’s surface changes continuously through weathering and erosion. Erosion by wind, water or ice transports the weathering products to other locations where they eventually deposit. These are natural processes that are only harmful when they involve human activity.

Answer: By breaking rock apart into smaller pieces, weathering makes possible a form of erosion by gravity that is called “mass wasting.” Unfortunately, mass wasting can destroy man-made structures and can even kill.

Forces like wind and water move the rock pieces. They mix with matter like sand to become sediment. Weathering and erosion help shape Earth’s surface.

Burrowing animals like shrews, moles, earthworms, and even ants contribute to biological weathering. In particular, these animals create holes on the ground by excavation and move the rock fragments to the surface.

Biological weathering is weathering caused by plants, animals, and microorganisms. Plants, animals, and microorganisms release acid forming chemicals that cause weathering and also contribute to the breaking down of rocks and land forms. It is the disintegration of rocks as a result of the action by living organisms.

Plant and animal life, atmosphere and water are the major causes of weathering. Weathering breaks down and loosens the surface minerals of rock so they can be transported away by agents of erosion such as water, wind and ice. There are two types of weathering: mechanical and chemical.

There are two main types of physical weathering:

• Freeze-thaw occurs when water continually seeps into cracks, freezes and expands, eventually breaking the rock apart.
• Exfoliation occurs as cracks develop parallel to the land surface a consequence of the reduction in pressure during uplift and erosion.

Onion-Skin weathering is the process of the layers of the rock being peeled off. Onion-Skin weathering is also known as exfoliation, thermal expansion and insolation weathering. The rocks will then expand in the morning and contract at the night. …