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 Weathering and
Engineering Significance
of Weathering
Engineering Geology

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Weathering
• Decomposition And Disintegration Of Rocks By
Chemical, Physical, And Biological Processes

Products:
• 1. Particles / Grains
• 2. Dissolved Ions

May Retain The Same Physical And Chemical

Characteristics Of The Parent Rock Or May Be Altered
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Weathering

• Parent material is rock altered by weathering, either

broken into smaller pieces or some of its constituent
minerals altered or dissolved.

• Transport refers to the movement of eroded material from

its place of origin to a new site where it is deposited as
sediment.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Weathering

• Weathering, an essential part of the rock cycle, plays an

important role in the formation of sediments, the raw
materials for sedimentary rocks.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Types of weathering
• Physical Weathering
• Chemical Weathering

• Both proceed at the same time, but at a given site one type will be
predominant.

• In their resistance to weathering, rocks are not homogeneous. One

may weather faster or slower than another.

• Parts of the same rock may weather at different rates. This

process, known as differential weathering
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Weathering

• Physical breakdown of rocks without changing the

composition (freeze thaw)

• Mechanical weathering occurs when physical forces

break Earth materials into smaller pieces.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Weathering

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Frost Action

• Frost action involves the repeated freeze and thaw of water in

the cracks and pores of rocks.

• This results in frost wedging, a very effective process for

widening and extending cracks and thereby breaking rocks into
smaller pieces.

• When water freezes, it expands in volume by 9% which exerts

great force on the walls of containing cracks and pores.
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Frost Action

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Chemical weathering

• Chemical weathering refers to the processes that decompose

rocks and minerals.

• In some instances, minerals are chemically altered such that

new minerals are formed.

• Other minerals may completely dissolve and their ions taken

• into solution.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Chemical Weathering

• Important agents of chemical weathering include

atmospheric gases, especially oxygen, water, and
organic acids produced by plants and decaying organic
matter.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Chemical Weathering

• The rate of chemical weathering is controlled largely by

climate, particle size, and mineralogy of the parent
material rock.

• Water enters rocks along fractures, so the more

fractures, the more opportunities for chemical
weathering

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

• Chemical weathering reactions require the presence of
water. In general, chemical reactions proceed more
rapidly at higher temperatures.

• Chemical weathering is most intense in tropical

climates where both rainfall and temperature are high.
In areas of tropical climate, the effects of chemical
weathering extend to depths of several tens of meters.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Chemical Weathering

• Where temperature is low and/or liquid water scarce,

such as in arctic or arid regions, the intensity of
chemical weathering is much reduced and the depth to
which it reaches is only centimeters, or at best a few
meters.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Example on Chemical
Weathering
• Most minerals are not easily dissolved in pure water.
Calcite (CaCO3), the mineral in limestone and marble,
does not dissolve in pure water, but easily dissolves if a
small amount of acid is added to water.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Oxidation

• Another type of chemical weathering is oxidation.

Oxidation is the reaction of a substance with oxygen.
You are probably familiar with oxidation because it is the
process that causes rust. So, just like your car turns to
rust through oxidation, rocks can get rusty if they
contain iron.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

• Oxidation is a chemical weathering reaction whereby
metal elements like iron combine with oxygen to form
oxides.

• Oxidation is important for the weathering of

ferromagnesian minerals such as olivine, amphibole,
and biotite. When the iron in these minerals oxidizes
hematite is commonly formed by the following chemical
reaction.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Hydrolysis
• With chemical weathering of rock, we see a chemical reaction
happening between the minerals found in the rock and
rainwater.

• The most common example of hydrolysis is feldspar, which can

be found in granite changing to clay. When it rains, water seeps
down into the ground and comes in contact with granite rocks.

• The feldspar crystals within the granite react with the water
and are chemically altered to form clay minerals, which weaken
the rock Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Carbonation

• Carbonation is another type of chemical weathering.

Carbonation is the mixing of water with carbon dioxide
to make carbonic acid.

• This type of weathering is important in the formation of

caves. Dissolved carbon dioxide in rainwater or in moist
air forms carbonic acid, and this acid reacts with
minerals in rocks.
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Regolith

• Regolith is a layer of
loose, heterogeneous superficial
material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil,
broken rock, and other related materials and is
present on Earth,

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Regolith

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Exfoliation

• Exfoliation is a type of rock weathering where the rock's

layers peel off in whole sheets instead of grain by
grain.

• Large-scale exfoliation occurs due to the mechanics of

gravity on a curved surface, while small-scale
exfoliation is due to chemical weathering.
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
• In exfoliation, the rock layer that is peeled off is usually
composed of coarse lava rock that is uniform and doesn't have
fractures.

• It is placed under stress from the rock layers directly above it,
and the pressure is relieved due to progressive erosion.

• Tension is created from this reduction in pressure at right

angles to the rock's surface. This tension forms cracks that run
along the rock's surface, and water fills these cracks to cause
chemical erosion that separates the rock from the rest of the
surface.
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Weathering and Erosion

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Weathering Rate and Degree of Weathering

• The more closely the fractures, or other discontinuities.

The greater will be the surface area exposed to weathering
agents. and so agents will be increasingly effective.

• Good correlation frequently exists between fracture

spacing and degree of weathering. However, it is very easy
in this case to come to false conclusions.
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Weathering Rate and Degree of Weathering
• While fracturing facilitates weathering, weathering itself
induces fracturing. The question has always to be asked:
which is cause, and which effect?

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Weathering Rate and Degree of Weathering

• Rocks with a fine , compact fabric, in which adjacent

crystals are welded or cemented together, have the
greatest resistance to the entry of water and of solutions.

• Those with coarse or open fabrics , especially if these are

combined with high porosity, offer the least resistance.

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Weathering Rate and Degree of Weathering

• Geologists have often observed that a basalt is much

more stable with respect to weathering than a granite,
although it is composed essentially of the same
minerals

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Weathering
Rate and
Degree of
Weathering

• This is due to fabric differences.

The coarse, open fabric of granite
permits more ready access to
agents of decomposition and fine
close fabric of basalt
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Weathering with Depth

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro
 Rock Soil Ratio (RSR)
It has been recognized by engineering geologists working
in the field that the ratio of rock to soil in a weathered
mass of crystalline rock is a critical index of weathering
grade.

It is possible, in the field, to determine this ratio quite

simply: it is equally simple to determine in core logging

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Rock Soil Ratio (RSR)

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Slake Durability Test
• The aim of the slake durability test is to provide an index
that is related to resistance of rock against degradation
when subject to standard cycles of wetting and drying.

• The slake durability test was suggested as a standard test

for rocks by and also became an ASTM standard

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

The main purpose of this ‘slake-durability test’ is to evaluate
the weathering resistance of Rocks

Engr.Muhammad Rehan Hakro

Slake Durability Test

• The durability of the rock material in this context is

defined as the resistance of the rock to short term
weathering processes; it is the inverse of
weatherability .

• Weatherability is a measure of the amount of

weathering which willEngr.Muhammad
occur in aHakro
Rehan given time,