How does erosion affect mountains

How does erosion happen? What are the river processes of erosion, transportation, and deposition? What are the causes and effects of erosion? Are there ways it can be prevented? What are different types of erosion and how do they work? There are two types of weathering: mechanical and chemical.

Physical or mechanical weathering is the disintegration of rock into smaller pieces. Physical weathering is often caused by atmospheric changes such as heat or freezing temperatures. Frost wedging results when water freezes and expands in crevices, causing rock to crack. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search.

Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Psychological disciplines How does weathering and erosion affect mountains? Psychological disciplines. Ben Davis February 26, How does weathering and erosion affect mountains? How does weathering and erosion affect the earth? How does weathering and erosion affect humans? What happens when rocks are affected by weathering and erosion? What are some examples of erosion? The need for mass balance and feedback in the geochemical carbon cycle.

Geology 25 , — Gaillardet, J. Global silicate weathering and CO 2 consumption rates deduced from the chemistry of large rivers. Assembled and analyzed a river-chemistry database to provide landmark estimates of silicate-weathering fluxes and their global controls, revealing a broad relationship between atmospheric CO 2 drawdown by weathering and erosion rates.

Galy, A. Weathering processes in the Ganges—Brahmaputra basin and the riverine alkalinity budget. White, A. The effect of time on the weathering of silicate minerals: Why do weathering rates differ in the laboratory and field?

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Anderson, S. Breaking it down: mechanical processes in the weathering engine. Elements 15 , — Lasaga, A. Chemical weathering rate laws and global geochemical cycles. Acta 58 , — Maher, K. The dependence of chemical weathering rates on fluid residence time. The role of fluid residence time and topographic scales in determining chemical fluxes from landscapes.

Developed a mechanistic framework for understanding why hydrology is a primary control on weathering fluxes, revealing the key role of saturation state in influencing reaction rates in natural weathering systems. Brantley, S. Learning to read the chemistry of regolith to understand the critical zone. Clair, J. Geophysical imaging reveals topographic stress control of bedrock weathering. Science , — Gu, X. Chemical reactions, porosity, and microfracturing in shale during weathering: The effect of erosion rate.

Acta , 63— Revealed how rock structure varies across erosion rates in ways that may mechanistically explain how erosion and weathering are linked. West, A. Tectonic and climatic controls on silicate weathering. Revealed the supply vs kinetic limitation of silicate weathering across river catchments, as a function of erosion rates.

By linking the empirical data to a predictive model, the role of erosion rate, temperature and run-off could be deconvolved for the first time. Gabet, E. A theoretical model coupling chemical weathering rates with denudation rates. Geology 37 , — Hydrologic regulation of chemical weathering and the geologic carbon cycle. Himalaya-carbon sink or source? Derry, L. France-Lanord, C.

Organic carbon burial forcing of the carbon cycle from Himalayan erosion. Nature , 65—67 Discovered very high fluxes of organic-carbon burial in the Bengal Fan as a result of Himalayan erosion, far outpacing silicate weathering in this system and giving birth to new lines of research to understand erosional controls on the organic-carbon cycle.

Burdige, D. Burial of terrestrial organic matter in marine sediments: A re-assessment. Cycles 19 , GB Galy, V. Efficient organic carbon burial in the Bengal fan sustained by the Himalayan erosional system. Petsch, S. Hilton, R. Geological respiration of a mountain belt revealed by the trace element rhenium.

Developed a new proxy that enables measurement of petrogenic carbon-oxidation fluxes at the scale of river catchments and found a link between oxidation fluxes and physical erosion rate.

Calmels, D. Sustained sulfide oxidation by physical erosion processes in the Mackenzie River basin: climatic perspectives. Geology 35 , — Revealed the correlation between erosion rate and fluxes from sulfide oxidation, opening up this field of inquiry. Torres, M. Sulphide oxidation and carbonate dissolution as a source of CO 2 over geological timescales. Proposed that sulfide oxidation can have important effects on the carbon cycle over long periods of time up to tens of Myrs , demonstrated links with erosion and explored importance over the past 60 Myrs.

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Evolution of the atmosphere and oceans. Nature , 27—33 Moon, S. New estimates of silicate weathering rates and their uncertainties in global rivers. Acta , — Kump, L. Ruddiman, W. Caves, J. Cenozoic carbon cycle imbalances and a variable weathering feedback. Bergman, N. Edmond, J. Non-steady state carbonate recycling and implications for the evolution of atmospheric PCO 2.

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Geology 42 , — Jacobson, A. Geology 31 , — Brought to light the importance of distinguishing carbonate vs silicate weathering in evaluating CO 2 drawdown, demonstrating that high erosion rates tend to produce increased proportion of solutes from carbonate sources. Stallard, R. Geochemistry of the Amazon: 2. The influence of geology and weathering environment on the dissolved load. Oceans 88 , — Riebe, C. Erosional and climatic effects on long-term chemical weathering rates in granitic landscapes spanning diverse climate regimes.

Dixon, J. Soils as pacemakers and limiters of global silicate weathering. Comptes Rendus Geosci. Hilley, G. Competition between erosion and reaction kinetics in controlling silicate-weathering rates. Thickness of the chemical weathering zone and implications for erosional and climatic drivers of weathering and for carbon-cycle feedbacks. Geology 40 , — Caves Rugenstein, J. Neogene cooling driven by land surface reactivity rather than increased weathering fluxes.

The ice and rock debris accumulates in the valleys and flows downwards as slow moving glaciers. When these melt, piles of rock debris called moraines are left behind.

Aprons of rock debris make up the scree slopes alongside the Mueller Valley near Mount Cook. Image: Julian Thomson. Privacy Statement Disclaimer and Copyright.