Biological weathering is when plants start to break apart and wear away at man
made objects such as a pavement or a house.
Example
This example starts with a plant seed that was caught
underneath a pavement when it was been built
1. The plant roots and shoots start to squeeze into tiny cracks in
the cement, which starts to wear away a small bit at the bottom
2. As the plant starts to grow, its roots and shoots starts to push
their way through the rock which cracks further areas above it
3. The growth of the cracks eventually causes the plant to break
to the surface and starts to flower.
Physical
Types
Onion-skin
This method is done in deserts and areas like that
1. During the day the sun heats up the surface of
the rock causing the rock to expand
2. During the night the rock cools down and contracts
3. As the rock keeps expanding and contracting, pieces of the
surface rock begins to flake and fall out.
Freeze=thaw
Freeze-thaw weathering is the repeated freezing and thawing of water and ice in
cracks in rocks which causes pieces of rock to break away
Chemical
What causes it
Chemical weathering is caused by acid rain. Acid rain is caused by chemicals such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide
which mixes with clouds and decreases the pH of "normal" rain water. The burning of fossil fuels in power stations and cars are the main
creators of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. "Normal" Rain what has a pH of around 5.6, which means it is naturally a little bit acidic.
Erosion
Types
Wind
Wind is involved because it breaks down rock by picking up
sand and other small rocks and scrapes the sand across rocks
which over time, wears them away
Water / Waves
Water is involved because it moves the
broken down rocks to a different location.
Waves are involved because waves crash
into rocks during storms which slowly
breaks the rocks down.
Ice
Ice is involved because it freezes then melts then
freezes then melts etc until the rocks have broken
down. Ice also freezes the broken down rocks and
moves them.
Gravity
Gravity is involved because gravity carries rocks
down things like hills and breaks them down then
they fall