Metzger_Weathering and Mass Wasting

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University of Kansas *

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104

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Geography

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by AdmiralUniverseSardine22

Exploring Weathering and Mass Wasting Background If we had unlimited time and an unlimited budget for this course, we would take a trip across the country to see everything you are learning in real life. Instead, you will have to rely on visual travels to gain a better understanding of weathering. Google Street View merges 360° images with Google Maps so that you can get an immersive sense of a location you are exploring. Geology is always all around us, so we can use Google Street View to look at 360° images of the geologic features you’re learning about. For the second part of this activity you will use GoogleEarth. If you do not have it installed on your computer, it is available for free download at: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html Learning Objectives: ● Identify examples of physical and chemical weathering ● Identify examples of mass wasting Directions For each location below, be sure to explore the photo by: dragging your mouse around the 360° view around you, and using the scroll feature on your mouse to zoom in and out on specific parts of the image. Answer each question that accompanies the link. You open the links by CTR-Click.

Part 1 - Weathering 1. Visit Apikuni Falls in Glacier National Park. Some of these rocks has a white color, but they have an orange color where they are exposed to water from the waterfall. Which type of weathering is producing the orange colored rocks? a. Hydrolysis b. Oxidation c. Exfoliation d. Frost wedging 2. Visit Stone Foundation in Wisconsin. There is evidence in this 360° photo for which type of weathering? a. Hydrolysis b. Oxidation c. Exfoliation d. Frost wedging 3. Visit Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. What type of weathering you see in this 360° photo? Oxidation 4. One type of physical weathering not covered in the videos is abrasion. A scratch on your skin or eye is called an abrasion and an “abrasive” person is someone that grates on your nerves. So, this form of weathering is just like it sounds. When sand or silt is picked up by water or wind and bumps into other rocks, it can round off the edges, making things smooth. River rocks are rounded because they roll around in rivers, bumping into one another and chipping off their rough edges. Sand carried by river water acts like sandpaper, smoothing the surface of the rocks. For example, see this photograph of rounded pebbles. Abrasion also happens as a result of wind carrying sand. Visit Devil’s Garden in Grand Staircase –Escalante National Monument in Utah. The towers of rock are called hoodoos. How are Devil’s Garden hoodoos an example of differential weathering? Provide evidence from your observations of the 360° photo. It is an example of differential weathering because some of the rocks had weathered at different rates than others. It is visible in the picture that some of the rocks were more weathered than others.

Part 2 - Mass Wasting 1. Go to the following webpage illustrating landslide occurrence and susceptibility in the continental U.S.: http://landslides.usgs.gov/learning/nationalmap/index.php a. List several specific locations that have a high susceptibility to landsliding. Appalachian Mountains, areas of Alaska, Rocky Mountains, Pacific coastal ranges, Hawaii b. Which 3 environmental factors appear to be most important in generating landsliding? Briefly explain your choices. Excessive rain, low climate for snowmelt, earthquakes, volcanoes 2. Go to: “Stone Mountain, GA” in Google Earth. Note that you will want to navigate to the mountain itself, which is just east of the town of Stone Mountain. Zoom in on the mountain, tilt a bit so that you are looking at a side view, and fly around its side, keeping your perspective on the mountain’s exposed granite wall. a. Note the close correspondence between the locations of large exfoliation sheets that have not yet slid down the mountainside and vegetation outcrops. What physical reason might be provided to explain this juxtaposition? erosion b. On the northeast flank of the mountain near the summit there are a series of large weathering pits. Explain the most likely cause for these features, given their particular setting. water erosion c. Note the numerous black streaks down the side of the mountain. What caused these? Where are they most abundant? exfoliation 3. Go to: “Lanzhou, China” in Google Earth, and then navigate to: 35º 57’ 55” N, 103 º 33’ 37” E. This is the famous Loess Plateau region of China, where thick loess (silt) deposits from the glaciation of the Himalayas have been deeply dissected to form narrow canyons. a. Note the strange, pit-like features at this location, found also in nearby areas. Explain how these likely formed, focusing on the processes involved. You may want to tilt for the side view to help determine the likely processes.

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The form of Loess was created by a thin layer of water flow that eroded into a funnel wall b. Although there is clear variability, there seems to be a characteristic size for these features. Determine the characteristic size, and hypothesize how/why this modal value appears to exist. Waterfall erosion-characteristics are crystalized spikes