We are going to talk about how climate afects

l i m a t e weathering.

H o w c n g.
In school chemistry laboratories, they do experiments

a t h er i to test this, for example using chemicals held in

e
solution in water, then heating it with the bunsen

ec t s w burner to see what happens. Chemical reactions are

af
faster in hot and wet conditions, this tells you about
the rates of weathering in diferent climates.

We will talk about four diferent climates,

frost climates, temperate areas, deserts and
humid tropical areas.
We will need to
know what
exfoliation
means>
It is when the
outer layer of Merriman falls in USA,
rock is heated by Sahara desert in Africa,
temperate area.
the sun during desert.
the day and
causing it to
expand at night.

Map of
climates
.

Alps in France, frost Namib desert in Namibia, Ecuador in South America,

climate. desert. humid tropical area.
 a te s . Himalaya.

s t c l im
Fro
Found in areas of high
mountain ranges as well as
close to the North and South
poles. The process here is
freeze-thaw action. How much North Pole.
weathering happens depend on
the number of freeze-thaw
cycles, is not so important how
severe the frost was. This
means in very cold areas the
amount of weathering is Greenland.
smaller.
Chemical weathering is slow in
frost climates, the cold
temperature makes the
chemical reaction go slower.
 rea s . Valdivia,

r a t e a Chile.

Tem p e
Temperate areas have
moderate temperatures. Here
freeze-thaw action is not
important. Exfoliation does not
occur. Columbia
Here what mostly happens is river, USA.
the chemical weathering. Here
the rate of weathering is lower
than in the Tropics because the
temperatures are lower.
Eastern
Australia,
temperate
forest.
 Cleopatra

e rt s s needle

Des
in London-
Egypt.

Exfoliation is the main

weathering process in deserts,
this is due to big diferences
between and minimum and
maximum temperatures in a
day (Diurnal temperature
range).
Chemical weathering is
extremely slow caused by the
lack of moisture. Their
weathering rates are the
slowest in all the world, we can
see it in the archaeological
pieces from Egypt from ancient Caravan desert , China.
times.
They sat that Cleopatras
Needle in London weathered
more in 10 years in the polluted
 o p i c a l
r
Amazon River, South
i d t
Hum
America.

a re a s
They have the fastest
weathering rates on Earth.
The layer of weathered material
lying on top of the bedrock can
be up to 40 metres deep, rocks
are seen to weather a lot very Thailand,
fast. east Asia.