Landform Features of Salt Weathering in Different Climatic Zones in China
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    Abstract:

    Salt weathering is a type of physical weathering existing almost everywhere on the world land, damaging surface of rocks and building stones, forming geomorphological sceneries, such as tafoni or honeycomb structures because of the periodical salt crystal growth. Salt weathering is also one of the major forms of differential weathering. However, salt weathering process has been largely neglected by geologists and geographers and almost all the landscapes formed by salt weathering in China have been misinterpreted as the results of surf wash, running water erosion or eolian erosion etc. After almost a decade of field investigation, the authors of this paper have thoroughly understood the origin and mechanism of salt weathering. In this paper, several salt weathering scenarios have been selected from seacoast areas in Qingdao and Taiwan, arid areas in the northwest, semiarid areas in the north, humid areas in the south, of China. All these examples are discussed here to systematically demonstrate the mechanism of salt weathering and its behaviors in different climatic zones. The favorable conditions for salt weathering are the supply of soluble salts (such as Na2SO4, and NaCl) and the repeated change in temperature and humidity; and the suitable host rocks to provide the pore spaces and microcracks for the saline solution to seep in and for the solid salts to crystallize are sandstones and conglomerates, granites and gneisses etc. Salt weathering commonly results in the formation of honeycomb structures on the surface of sandstone bedrocks and large tafoni on the vertical or nearvertical sides of granite outcrops along the coast area above sea level, the formation of tafoni of different sizes on the sunny sides of sandstone or granite/gneiss outcrops where there is little rainfall attacking in the arid and semiarid inland areas, and the formation of large tafoni/caverns or honeycomb structures on the sandstone cliffs of humid areas in southern China where rainfall frequently impacts the outcrop surfaces. We can conclude that salt weathering plays an important role in making the natural landforms or corroding the building stones. We should pay attention to the universal nature of salt weathering, update salt weathering information in the related geological textbooks or treatise, popularize the geological science to clear up the misunderstanding of salt weathering via all kinds of media.

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LV Hongbo, SU Dechen, ZHANG Yuxu, FENG Xuedong, LI Chunwang.2017. Landform Features of Salt Weathering in Different Climatic Zones in China[J]. Geological Review,63(4):911-926.

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History
  • Received:March 06,2017
  • Revised:June 16,2017
  • Adopted:
  • Online: July 13,2017
  • Published: