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Introduction. Weathering Occurs Through Interaction Between

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Introduction Weathering occurs through interaction between rocks, soils, and minerals and the Earth’s atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. Different types of weathering fall under three general categories of weathering: physical, chemical, and biological. Tafoni weathering refers to small cavernous holes and features that is found in granular rock. Typically, these features include smooth concave walls and are adjacent with one another in networks. Tafoni weathering is a subtype of weathering that falls under hydration weathering and ultimately under the larger umbrella category of physical weathering processes. Fundamentally, this particular weathering occurs due to a salt crystal expansion process where salt crystals or deposits …show more content…

Also, the Santa Monica Mountains also undergo Aeolian processes during particularly strong wind activity such as “Santa Ana” wind events. Moreover, our primary focus area was restrained to about a 1-mile hike into the park and reached a large volcanic swimming hole. The swimming hole acted as a boundary, but there are a few observations beyond the swimming hole that also contribute to this weathering process. In a short distance beyond the swimming hole, there is a visible fault line. Within the hike, the first observable evidence of tafoni weathering was about 40 minutes into the hike. Passing a large rock archway, tafoni weathering was evident in the rock face of the archway as well as the side of the mountains beyond this point. In addition to larger mountains, tafoni weathering was also present in smaller hillsides. This particular type of weathering was also evident in the mountains overlooking the swimming hole. The tafoni weathering observed in the mountains around the swimming hole had larger cave-like features than the mountains not directly touching a body of water. Discussion Presently, there are studies conducted to better understand tafoni weathering with several investigations and theoretical models but due to “limited data available on temperature, moisture and salt regimes” it is difficult to

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