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These conditions are considered unusual, [6] restricting it to a process of importance within a few centimeters of a rock's surface and on larger existing water-filled joints in a process called ice wedging. Not all volumetric expansion is caused by the pressure of the freezing water; it can be caused by stresses in water that remains unfrozen.
Frost weathering is the collective name for those forms of physical weathering that are caused by the formation of ice within rock outcrops. It was long believed that the most important of these is frost wedging, which is the widening of cracks or joints in rocks resulting from the expansion of porewater when it freezes. A growing body of ...
Mass wasting is a general term for any process of erosion that is driven by gravity and in which the transported soil and rock is not entrained in a moving medium, such as water, wind, or ice. [2] The presence of water usually aids mass wasting, but the water is not abundant enough to be regarded as a transporting medium.
Plucking is increased where there are preexisting fractures in a rock bed. As the glacier slides down a mountain, energy from friction, pressure or geothermal heat causes glacial meltwater to infiltrate the spaces between rocks. [4] This process, known as frost wedging, puts stress on
Ice lens formation resulting in frost heave in cold climates. Frost heave is the process by which the freezing of water-saturated soil causes the deformation and upward thrust of the ground surface. [3] This process can distort and crack pavement, damage the foundations of buildings and displace soil in
Ice jacking is a continuous process that occurs during the winter in areas near lakes. The process starts when the ice begins to crack. When water then fills in those gaps, the process repeats and continues until there is a wall of ice surrounding the lake's shoreline, sometimes reaching up to three feet.
Starting about 2 to 3 million years ago a series of glaciations further modified the area by accelerating mass wasting through ice-wedging, glacial plucking, scouring/abrasion and the release of pressure after the retreat of each glaciation.
Solifluction is a collective name for gradual processes in which a mass moves down a slope ("mass wasting") related to freeze-thaw activity. This is the standard modern meaning of solifluction, which differs from the original meaning given to it by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1906. [1] [2]