Physical Geography

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Question 1

Weathering is the breakdown or disintegration of rocks into simpler pieces through the action of various environmental factors such as temperature . Weathering is different from erosion . Erosion involves movement of the weathered rocks down-slope , while weathering occurs without the movement of rocks . There are two types of weathering namely physical and chemical weathering . Physical weathering is the mechanical breakdown of rocks into smaller pieces . Here , no chemical reaction takes place and the broken down pieces can be reassembled if all

were present (Craghan ,pp .162 . Rocks may undergo physical weathering by shattering splitting or even chipping

Physical weathering occurs through various mechanisms when the rocks are exposed to physical conditions that are different from those that were present during rock formation . One of the mechanisms is called freeze-thaw which mainly occurs in mountainous environment . Water sips into the rock cracks and freezes during the cold seasons either at night or during winter . As the water freezes into ice , its volume increases thus causing the cracks in the rock to enlarge due to pressure building up . When the process of freeze-thaw repeats over periods of time the rocks disintegrate . This simple process could take several tens or hundreds of thousands of years (Geo Notes , para .6

Another mechanism of physical weathering is exfoliation which occurs especially in host deserts where day and night temperatures vary widely In such places day temperature are extremely high at about 40 degrees Celsius and night temperatures fall to...