The Elements of Geology. William Harmon Norton
These are a few simple illustrations of the surface changes which some of the common kinds of rocks undergo. The agencies by which these changes are brought about we will now take up under two divisions—chemical agencies producing rock decay and mechanical agencies producing rock disintegration.
The Chemical Work Of Water
As water falls on the earth in rain it has already absorbed from the air carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas) and oxygen. As it sinks into the ground and becomes what is termed ground water, it takes into solution from the soil humus acids and carbon dioxide, both of which are constantly being generated there by the decay of organic matter. So both rain and ground water are charged with active chemical agents, by the help of which they corrode and rust and decompose all rocks to a greater or less degree. We notice now three of the chief chemical processes concerned in weathering—solution, the formation of carbonates, and oxidation.
Solution. Limestone, although so little affected by pure water that five thousand gallons would be needed to dissolve a single pound, is easily dissolved in water charged with carbon dioxide. In limestone regions well water is therefore “hard.” On boiling the water for some time the carbon dioxide gas is expelled, the whole of the lime carbonate can no longer be held in solution, and much of it is thrown down to form a crust or “scale” in the kettle or in the tubes of the steam boiler. All waters which flow over limestone rocks or soak through them are constantly engaged in dissolving them away, and in the course of time destroy beds of vast extent and great thickness.
Fig. 4. Surface of Limestone furrowed by Weathering, Montana
The upper surface of limestone rocks becomes deeply pitted, as we saw in the limestone quarry, and where the mantle of waste has been removed it may be found so intricately furrowed that it is difficult to traverse (Fig. 4).
Beds of rock salt buried among the strata are dissolved by seeping water, which issues in salt springs. Gypsum, a mineral composed of hydrated sulphate of lime, and so soft that it may be scratched with the finger nail, is readily taken up by water, giving to the water of wells and springs a peculiar hardness difficult to remove.
The dissolving action of moisture may be noted on marble tombstones of some age, marble being a limestone altered by heat and pressure and composed of crystalline grains. By assuming that the date on each monument marks the year of its erection, one may estimate how many years on the average it has taken for weathering to loosen fine grains on the polished surface, so that they may be rubbed off with the finger, to destroy the polish, to round the sharp edges of tool marks in the lettering, and at last to open cracks and seams and break down the stone. We may notice also whether the gravestones weather more rapidly on the sunny or the shady side, and on the sides or on the top.
The weathered surface of granular limestone containing shells shows them standing in relief. As the shells are made of crystalline carbonate of lime, we may infer whether the carbonate of lime is less soluble in its granular or in its crystalline condition.
The formation of carbonates. In attacking minerals water does more than merely take them into solution. It decomposes them, forming new chemical compounds of which the carbonates are among the most important. Thus feldspar consists of the insoluble silicate of alumina, together with certain alkaline silicates which are broken up by the action of water containing carbon dioxide, forming alkaline carbonates. These carbonates are freely soluble and contribute potash and soda to soils and river waters. By the removal of the soluble ingredients of feldspar there is left the silicate of alumina, united with water or hydrated, in the condition of a fine plastic clay which, when white and pure, is known as kaolin and is used in the manufacture of porcelain. Feldspathic rocks which contain no iron compounds thus weather to whitish crusts, and even apparently sound crystals of feldspar, when ground to thin slices and placed under the microscope, may be seen to be milky in color throughout because an internal change to kaolin has begun.
Fig. 5. Bowlder split by Heat and Cold, Western Texas
Oxidation. Rocks containing compounds of iron weather to reddish crusts, and the seams of these rocks are often lined with rusty films. Oxygen and water have here united with the iron, forming hydrated iron oxide. The effects of oxidation may be seen in the alteration of many kinds of rocks and in red and yellow colors of soils and subsoils.
Pyrite is a very hard mineral of a pale brass color, found in scattered crystals in many rocks, and is composed of iron and sulphur (iron sulphide). Under the attack of the weather it takes up oxygen, forming iron sulphate (green vitriol), a soluble compound, and insoluble hydrated iron oxide, which as a mineral is known as limonite. Several large masses of iron sulphide were placed some years ago on the lawn in front of the National Museum at Washington. The mineral changed so rapidly to green vitriol that enough of this poisonous compound was washed into the ground to kill the roots of the surrounding grass.
Agents Of Mechanical Disintegration
Heat and cold. Rocks exposed to the direct rays of the sun become strongly heated by day and expand. After sunset they rapidly cool and contract. When the difference in temperature between day and night is considerable, the repeated strains of sudden expansion and contraction at last become greater than the rocks can bear, and they break, for the same reason that a glass cracks when plunged into boiling water (Fig. 5).
Rocks are poor conductors of heat, and hence their surfaces may become painfully hot under the full blaze of the sun, while the interior remains comparatively cool. By day the surface shell expands and tends to break loose from the mass of the stone. In cooling in the evening the surface shell suddenly contracts on the unyielding interior and in time is forced off in scales (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Bowlders scaling off under Heat and Cold, Western Texas
Many rocks, such as granite, are made up of grains of various minerals which differ in color and in their capacity to absorb heat, and which therefore contract and expand in different ratios. In heating and cooling these grains crowd against their neighbors and tear loose from them, so that finally the rock disintegrates into sand.
The conditions for the destructive action of heat and cold are most fully met in arid regions when vegetation is wanting for lack of sufficient rain. The soil not being held together by the roots of plants is blown away over large areas, leaving the rocks bare to the blazing sun in a cloudless sky. The air is dry, and the heat received by the earth by day is therefore rapidly radiated at night into space. There is a sharp and sudden fall of temperature after sunset, and the rocks, strongly heated by day, are now chilled perhaps even to the freezing point.
In the Sahara the thermometer has been known to fall 131° F. within a few hours. In the light air of the Pamir plateau in central Asia a rise of 90° F. has been recorded from seven o’clock in the morning to one o’clock in the afternoon. On the mountains of southwestern Texas there are frequently heard crackling noises as the rocks of that arid region throw off scales from a fraction of an inch to four inches in thickness, and loud reports are made as huge bowlders split apart. Desert pebbles weakened by long exposure to heat and cold have been shivered to fine sharp-pointed fragments on being placed in sand heated to 180 degrees F. Beds half a foot thick, forming the floor of limestone quarries in Wisconsin, have been known to buckle and arch and break to fragments under the heat of the summer sun.
Frost. By this term is meant the freezing and thawing of water contained in the pores and crevices of rocks. All rocks are more or less