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Frost weathering is a collective term for several mechanical weathering processes induced by stresses created by the freezing of water into ice. The term serves as an umbrella term for a variety of processes, such as frost shattering, frost wedging, and cryofracturing.
The term "felsenmeer" comes from the German meaning "sea of rock". In a felsenmeer or blockfield, freeze-thaw weathering has broken up the top layer of the rock, covering the underlying rock formation with jagged, angular boulders. Freeze-thaw or frost weathering occurs when water that is trapped along microcracks in rock expands and contracts ...
In addition to chemical and physical weathering of hydraulic action, freeze-thaw cycles, and more, there is a suite of processes which have long been considered to contribute significantly to bedrock channel erosion include plucking, abrasion (due to both bedload and suspended load), solution, and cavitation.
Two types of physical breakdown are freeze-thaw weathering and thermal fracturing. Pressure release can also cause weathering without temperature change. It is usually much less important than chemical weathering, but can be significant in subarctic or alpine environments. [5] Furthermore, chemical and physical weathering often go hand in hand.
The study includes physical properties of the material as it changes, bulk properties of in-place snow packs, and the aggregate properties of regions with snow cover. In doing so, they employ on-the-ground physical measurement techniques to establish ground truth and remote sensing techniques to develop understanding of snow-related processes ...
Exfoliation (or onion skin weathering) is the gradual removing of spall due to the cyclic increase and decrease in the temperature of the surface layers of the rock. Rocks do not conduct heat well, so when they are exposed to extreme heat, the outermost layer becomes much hotter than the rock underneath causing differential thermal expansion .
Photograph taken 21 March 2010 in Norwich, Vermont. Frost heaving (or a frost heave) is an upwards swelling of soil during freezing conditions caused by an increasing presence of ice as it grows towards the surface, upwards from the depth in the soil where freezing temperatures have penetrated into the soil (the freezing front or freezing boundary).
A correlation was found between slope failure and freeze-thaw cycles, suggesting that ice jacking is a major triggering factor in rockfalls. [8] On December 17, 2008, a Gondola tower on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, British Columbia, collapsed due to ice jacking. The splice broke when the water entered a section of the fourth tower and expanded.