Geological Processes: Weathering, Erosion, and Rocks

Weathering and Rock Transformation

Weathering rocks: Rain and wet snow affect rocks, producing the solution of some of the component minerals. Temperature changes cause the dilation of the rocks when the sun heats them up and their contraction with the cold night. Freezing water seeps into cracks in rocks, subjected to very strong tension just for breaking them.

Defining Weathering

Weathering: The set of processes due to atmospheric agents that produce the rupture and dislocation of rocks.

• Mechanical weathering: Occurs when rocks fragment due to expansions and contractions.
• Chemical weathering: Occurs when the disintegration of the rocks is due to chemical reactions that have altered minerals.
• Biological weathering: Results from the action of living things.

Factors Affecting Weathering

• Temperature: High temperatures facilitate chemical reactions that always involve water.
• Moisture: Moist environments, such as forests, favor chemical weathering reactions.

Erosion and Geological Agents

Erosion: The removal of material from its place of origin. Relief changes correspond to the erosion that occurs.

• Energy of geological agents: A great river is steep and has erosive capacity, but a lower flow than another.
• Resistance of rocks: Limestone, clay, slates, and sandstones are erodible.

Transportation and Sedimentation

Transportation: With background waves or streams, clasts are moved and transported in suspension without touching the ground.

Sedimentation: Occurs when a geological agent deposits clasts in a specific area.

Specific Geological Agents

Wind and Glaciers

Wind: Its erosive capacity is small, but it has a large capacity for transport.

Glaciers: These are masses of moving ice from the area of snow accumulation to those where the ice melts.

Wild Waters and Rivers

Wild waters: They are a geological agent that has great erosive capacity and modeling in areas of dry weather.

Rivers: These are permanent courses of water that are converging on each other to form a mainstream that usually flows into the sea.

Groundwater and Karst Modeling

Groundwater: Aquifers are accumulations of groundwater that can be exploited by wells.

Karst Modeling: This includes all underground and surface tracks produced by the dissolution of the rocks.

Marine Dynamics

Sea: Waves are produced by wind. Marine currents are formed by differences in temperature and salinity. The tides are movements of large bodies of water due to the gravitational influence of the moon and sun.

Formation of Sedimentary Rocks

Sedimentary rocks: They form in depressed areas of the Earth's crust where sediments accumulate. Due to the weight of materials that accumulate on them, high pressure and temperature caused by the Earth's internal heat, and the circulation of water contained in sediments that dissolved some minerals, these rocks are formed.