Essay On Chemical Weathering

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Madison Fogel
November 9, 2017
Period 1

Chemical Weathering

Background
Chemical weathering is caused by rain water reacting with the mineral grains in rocks to form new minerals (clays) and soluble salts (soluble-a substance able to be dissolved, especially in water). The process breaks down rocks. These reactions occur particularly when the water is slightly acidic. There are different types of chemical weathering. There’s hydrolysis, which is the chemical breakdown of a substance when combined with water. When water combines with the substances in rocks, it forms new types of substances, which are softer than original rock types.It’s easier to break them apart.There’s oxidation, which is the reaction of a substance with oxygen. When oxygen …show more content…

This process takes place with carbon dioxide, it reacts with certain types of rocks forming a solution that can easily be carried by water. Then there’s lichens and acid rain. Lichens are a combination of fungi and algae and grow on rocks and produce acids that break down the minerals within the rocks. Leaching is the process of removing dissolved minerals as they are carried to lower layers in the soil. The chemical weathering processes need water and occur more rapidly at higher temperatures. So warm, damp climates are the best places where chemical weathering occurs. It would most likely occur most when it’s raining because chemical weathering needs water for the process/ processes to happen. Water also interacts with calcites in caves, causing them to dissolve. In addition to changing the shapes of rocks, chemical weathering from water changes the composition of water. Weathering over billions of years is a big …show more content…

In the chart above, you can clearly see a plot was misplaced. It’s because the initial mass of the zinc was so high, and then the final mass was so low. Maybe to improve to increase the accuracy of this experiment, we could leave the metal in the acid in a longer period of time or we could use different types of metal with the same mass or the same metal, same mass, but different “forms” (Crushed up zinc, block of zinc…). Maybe we also could’ve changed the type of liquid we put the zinc in (such as soda or tomato juice) instead of half being water and acid. This experiment showed me that chemical weathering does have an impact on nature. I read in an article about how the ocean is becoming more acidic because of chemical weathering. Since the ocean is becoming more acidic, it’s destroying aquatic life. For example, it’s destroying shells since the ocean is becoming more acidic. So, when we put the metal in the acid, the acid broke the metal

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