![]() Ice wedging, also called freeze-thaw weathering, is the main form of mechanical weathering in any climate that regularly cycles above and below the freezing point. There are many ways that rocks can be broken apart into smaller pieces. The smaller pieces have the same minerals, in just the same proportions as the original rock. That means the rock has changed physically without changing its composition. These smaller pieces are just like the bigger rock, just smaller. Mechanical weathering, also called physical weathering, breaks rock into smaller pieces. Over hundreds of years, it will completely disappear, but what happens over one year? What changes would you see? What forces of weathering wear down that road, or rocks or mountains over time? No human being can watch for millions of years as mountains are built, nor can anyone watch as those same mountains gradually are worn away. The Appalachian Mountains along the east coast of North America were once as tall as the Himalayas. ![]() ![]() Together with erosion, tall mountains turn into hills and even plains. While plate tectonics forces work to build huge mountains and other landscapes, the forces of weathering and mass wasting gradually wear those rocks and landscapes away, called denudation. These forces of erosion will be covered later. Gravity moves broken pieces of rock, large or small, downslope. Glaciers move all sizes of sediments, from extremely large boulders to the tiniest fragments. Wind moves sand-sized and smaller pieces of rock through the air. Water can move most sizes of sediments, depending on the strength of the force. The four forces of erosion are water, wind, glaciers, and gravity. With weathering, rock is disintegrated into smaller pieces. Once these sediments are separated from the rocks, erosion is the process that moves the sediments away from it's original position. Weathering is the process that changes solid rock into sediments.
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