Geography: Write Short Answer and Answer Fully Denudation is the overall disinte

Question

Geography: Write Short Answer and Answer Fully

Denudation is the overall disintegration of rock material through weathering, mass wasting, and erosion. Explain the activities of denudation. Be sure to include the following elements in your discussion:

-Definitions for each of the three activities

-Identification and description of the processes that occur under each of activity

-The impact of climate has on each activity

-The importance of each portion of the denudation process

After explaining the activities of denudation, locate a site in the world, other than what those listed in the textbook and laboratory manual, where one can find an example of exfoliation.

Explanation / Answer

Denudation is nothing but the combination effect of weathering and erosion.

Erosion is a process which includes the destruction of existing rocks and removal of the product from the site of destruction.

Mass wasting refers removal of material that falls under the influence of gravity with no transporting agent.

In erosion transport is the important aspect. It is usually done by water, wind or ice.The air currents in motionn is called wind. The wind is the an important agent of erosion. Its work is particularly seen in arid regions. Wind does erosion in three ways.

The important features of wind erosion are polishing of rock faces and formation of ventifacts and pedestal rocks. Pot holes, waterfalls,gorges and meanders are some of the erosional features of stream. In Mass wasting,Gravity controls the movement of materials in the earth causing water to run down hill and rocks to fall. In the process of denudation is to reduce the strength of earth materials and make them more liable to fail.

Water plays a major role is regulating the earth's climate and soil formation. In arid regions where days are very hot and nights are cool, the rocks shatter mainly by the influence of unequal expansion and contraction. The soils thus produced contain the grains of minerals which are disintegrated from the original rock. The surface layers of such soils often become hard due to crystallization of salts. Ex: The lime crust is found in the desert soils of Texas, New Mexico and North Africa, while the gypsum crust occurs in Egypt and central Australia deserts.

In Arctic regons the ice and frost activity take part in rock disintegrationn and produce a soil consisting of undecomposed mineral and rock particles. The soil mantle which is usually shallow, is characterised by abundant silt,peat and water in a permanently frozen state. In humid regions the rocks are weathered predominantly by a combination of both disintegration and decomposition. Here Podzol type of soil is formed. In tropical regions the chemical weathering plays an important role and rocks are weathered thoroughly upto a great depth. The most common soil of the tropical areas is "Laterite".It is very useful construction material.

Exfoliation is mainly a physical weathering process in which large sheets of rock a peel off from an outcrop. In this reduction in pressure due to removal of the overlying rock plays an important part. As each slabs break off, it releases weight from the underlying mass. As a result its outer layer expand and separate from the rock mass. Exfoilation is commonly seen in homogeneous rocks like granite. Ex: Yosemite National Park, Idaho has good examples in the Quiet City of Rocks near Oakley.

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