WEATHERING & SEDIMENT PRODUCTION

Weathering - Process which acts at the earth's surface

to decompose and breakdown rocks.
Erosion - The movement of weathered material from
the site of weathering. Primary agent is gravity, but
gravity acts in concert with a fluid (water or air).

Reading Assignment: Boggs, Chapter 1

Weathering/Erosion is Part of the Rock Cycle

Types of Weathering
Mechanical or Physical - the breakdown of rock material into
smaller and smaller pieces with no change in the chemical
composition of the weathered material.
Chemical - the breakdown of rocks by chemical agents (e.g.,
water).

Estimates of Relative Contributions:

Mechanical Weathering: 5.61015 g/yr
Chemical Weathering: 4.01015 g/yr
Roughly equal, but not evenly distributed over earth surface.

hree Basic Weathering Products

ions

Sediment
Clay Minerals

Physical Weathering
The breakdown of rock into sediment WITHOUT any
change in mineralogy.
Primary agents of physical weathering are:
Thermal stress (expansion/ contraction)
Ice/frost wedging
Permafrost mechanics
Biogenic (roots, animal burrowing)
Abrasion by grains in transport (ice, water, wind)
Exfoliation (pressure release)
Salt growth
Wetting/Drying (primarily shale)
Meteorite impacts
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Where Does Physical Weathering Dominate?

Water-limited environments (arid, cold, high elevations)

Thermal Expansion and Contraction - Heating and cooling

of rocks causing expansion and contraction.

Fire

Freeze-Thaw

Exfoliation

Salt Weathering

Biogenic
Cracking of rocks
by plant roots
and burrowing
animals.

Cryogenic

Permafrost Polygonal Fracturing

Ice Wedging
Water freezes and expands because the solid occupies greater
volume. Action wedges the rocks apart. Temperature must
move back and forth over freezing point.

Abrasion Impacts and grinding

by moving particles.

Water

Glacial - Ice

Abrasion - Wind

Ventifact

Controls on Physical
Weathering
Strongly influenced by rock mineralogy (shale vs.
basalt vs. granite)

Utilizes zones of weakness (joints, faults,

bedding planes)
Promotes chemical weathering by increasing
surface area

Natural Zones of
Weakness

Volume vs. Surface Area

A main function of physical weathering is to increase the rate of

chemical weathering
Why? Chemical reactions occur primarily at surfaces

Chemical Weathering
Alteration of parent mineralogy & dissolution of minerals
Production of CLAY MINERALS and cations/anions in
solution
The principle agent of chemical weathering is water a
catalyst for ion exchange
This process occurs because minerals formed deep in the
Earths interior are not stable at the surface of the Earth (T &
P)
Commonly enhanced by biological agents (vegetation,
microbes)
Different minerals undergo chemical weathering at different
rates
Rates of chemical weathering increase with water abundance
& temperature (climate)

Goldich Weathering Stability Series Predicts relative

abundance of particulate residues produced in a (typical)
weathering environment from rock-forming, protolith minerals.
Approximately inverse of Bowens Reaction Series.

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Composition of Siliciclastic Sedimentary Rocks:

Earth surface can be though of as a giant chemical
reactor.
About 20% of earths crust is composed of quartz,
> 60% is feldspar
BUT Quartz is dominant mineral in siliciclastic
sedimentary rocks.

Material in solution may precipitate as CEMENTS between

grains during DIAGENESIS
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Chemical Weathering How It Works

The three common styles of

chemical reactions associated with
chemical weathering are
1) dissolution,
2) hydrolysis, and
3) oxidation/reduction.

microscopic
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Dissolution
Dissolution of soluble
minerals. Cations and anions
in solution are transported
away leaving space in the rock
(e.g., vugs, caves in
limestone).
An example:

CaCO3 H2O CO2 Ca2 2HCO3

Formation of carbonic acid
Carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air is dissolved in rainwater to
create carbonic acid (H2CO3). All rain is mildly acidic
(average pH ~5.6).
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1908
1969

Dissolution of Marble Statue

Hydrolysis
Feldspar, the most common mineral
in rocks on the earth's surface,
reacts with free hydrogen ions in
water to form a secondary mineral
such as kaolinite (a type of clay)
and additional ions that are in
solution.

kaolin mine, central Georgia

4KAlSi3O8 + 4H+ + H2O 4K+ + 2Al2Si2O5(OH) 4 + 8SiO2

orthoclase + hydrogen + water K+(aq) + Kaolinite (clay)
(feldspar)
ions

CaAl2Si2O8 + 2H+ + H2O Ca++ + Al2Si2O5(OH) 4

anorthite + hydrogen + water Ca++(aq) + Kaolinite (clay)
(feldspar)
ions
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silica

Feldspar Chemical Weathering This is what a

chemically weathered surface of a feldspar sand
grain looks like (compared to a grain that is not
chemically weathered)

Oxidation: Loss of an electron from an element

(commonly Fe or Mn), typically forming oxides or
hydroxides.
Loss of electron by a metal {ferrous to ferric state}
4Fe+2 + 302 2Fe2O3

4 FeSiO3 O2 2 Fe2O3 4 SiO2

(pyroxene)

(hematite)

(silica)

Oxides: Hematite - iron oxide;

Goethite/Limonite hydrated iron oxide;
Gibbsite - aluminum hydroxide
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Reduction: Gain of an electron from an element.

Typically water saturated environment where oxygen
demand by organisms is high.
4Fe+2 + 302 2Fe2O3

Fe+2 is relatively soluble and more mobile than Fe+3

and may be lost from weathering system in
solution.

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Where is most of the

chemical weathering
happening?
Soil - Surface material that
forms due to weathering.
Includes an organic
component.
Most strongly influenced
by: Climate
(temperature and
precipitation on an
annual cycle);
Topography; and
Precursor material

Soil profiles develop because materials are systematically

added or removed from specific zones during weathering.
1. O horizon - Organic layer
2. A horizon - Zone of leaching Cations are leached from this
horizon by strongly acid solutions
generated in the O horizon
3. B horizon - Zone of
Accumulation - Cations leached
out of the A horizon accumulate
here. Horizon consists of clays, iron
and aluminum oxides. Deposition
partially due to neutralization of
acidic solutions.
4. C horizon - Partially
decomposed parent material.
Lower most zone. 28

Ancient soil horizons preserved

in Eocene deposits of the
Bighorn Basin, WY
Paleosols are common in
rock record

Plant root preserved in

ancient Eocene soil of
the Bighorn Basin, WY
(pictures from M. Kraus,
29 CU)

1 cm

Siliciclastic Particles:
gravel - from fracturing/jointing of parent rock
sand - from breakdown of parent rock into individual mineral
grains
silt - formed from either abrasion of sand or from a parent rock
whose individual minerals are small
clay primarily a product of chemical weathering

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Questions You Should be Able to Answer

1.
2.
3.
4.

When does weathering occur?

What is the difference between weathering and erosion?
What is the difference between physical and chemical weathering?
What environmental factor has the greatest control on weathering?
When does physical weathering dominate? Chemical weathering?
5. Ultimately, what drives most erosion?
6. What are the 3 basic products of weathering?
7. What are examples of physical weathering? Exactly, how does
each cause physical weathering?
8. What are examples of biogenic physical and chemical weathering?
9. How does physical weathering occur with flowing water and air?
10. What is a ventifact?
11. What attributes of rocks influence the type and rates of
weathering?

12. What is the role of fractures, joints and bedding planes in

weathering?
13. How does physical weathering promote chemical weathering?
14. With respect to grain morphology, where does chemical weathering
occur?
15. What are the main products of chemical weathering?
16. What are the primary controls on rates of chemical weathering?
17. What is the relative susceptibility to chemical weathering of the
common minerals found at the Earths surface?
18. What is the role of microbes in chemical weathering?
19. What are the 3 basic chemical reactions that describe chemical
weathering on Earth?
20. What is dissolution? What are the products? What minerals are
most susceptible to this form of chemical weathering?
21. What is the chemical formula for carbonic acid? How is it formed?
22. What is the average pH of rain water?
23. What is the basic chemical process of hydrolysis? What minerals
are most susceptible? Weathering product?

24. What is the most common mineral on the Earths surface?

25. What is reduction? What minerals are most susceptible?
26. What is oxidation? What minerals are most susceptible?
27. What are the weathering products of these common minerals:
Quartz, Feldspar, Amphibole, Pyroxene, Biotite, Muscovite?
28. What happens to the solution phase (ions) of weathering?
29. What is soil?
30. What are the controls on soil development?
31. What is the profile of a soil (i.e., layers)?
32. How would you recognize a paleosol in the rock record?