In my opinion, Grand Teton National Park is one of the best places to study and observe many of the great aspects of geology, but for this blog entry I will first be focusing on weathering of rocks and later I will be focusing on mass wasting.
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| Beautiful Teton Mountain range in the morning. |
Grand Teton National Park is a great example of weathering. Weathering of rocks, also known as rock decay, is the breaking down of rock in situ (in place). Joints (fissures) are cracks in rocks which provide free space for physical and chemical weathering to occur. Physical weathering is the disintegration of rocks and minerals by a physical of mechanical process. Chemical weathering is a chemical decomposition of rocks or minerals. One type of physical weathering that occurs in the park is called
frost decay (frost wedging). Frost decay happens when
water enters joints in the rocks, freezes, and finally expands and exerts force
on its surroundings.
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| Frost decay creates beautiful alpine scenery. |
Two other types of weathering that occur at the park are pressure release and exfoliation. Pressure release and exfoliation are similar, but deal with different sizes of rock. Pressure release is when massive rocks snap off in slabs because of quick erosion. Exfoliation is the same concept, but instead the rocks slabs are very small. Pressure release and exfoliation are sometimes apart of mass wasting.
Mass wasting also occurs all over in Grand Teton National Park. Mass wasting is the down-slope movement of angular slope material, and it occurs because of gravity. It comes in four forms: falls, topples, slides and flows. The easiest mass wasting concept to understand is rock fall. The first step in rock fall is detachment. After the rock is detached, and has fallen, it creates talus, which sometimes will form a talus cone. Talus cones are usually made up of scree, which are small loose stones.
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| Great example of a talus cone made up of scree in Grand Teton National Park. |
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