Admin Table of Contents
Why rocks or pebbles tend to become smaller and more nearly round as you go down a river?
When the temperature falls below 0oC, the water freezes and there is an expansion in volume in changing from water to ice. River water carrying rocks and battering into other rocks, which is why down a river the rocks/pebbles tend to become smaller and rounder.
What rocks weather rounded shapes?
Structureless rocks like granite and other intrusive rocks tend to weather into characteristic rounded shapes through this process.
What are smooth round rocks called?
Completely round rocks, known as concretions, are simply a natural phenomenon.
How do rocks get smooth?
Weathering, or the wearing-away of rock by exposure to the elements, not only creates smooth rocks as well as caves and canyons, but it also slowly eats away at other hard objects, including some statues and buildings.
Why do rocks become more rounded downstream?
For centuries, geologists have recognized that the rocks that line riverbeds tend to be smaller and rounder further downstream. Abrasion causes rocks to grind down and become rounder as they are transported down the river.
Why do pebbles become rounded?
Transport of pebbles in a stream causes them to collide and rub against one another and the stream bed, and the resulting abrasion produces the familiar smooth and rounded shape of river rocks.
What causes spherical weathering?
Spheroidal weathering is the result of chemical weathering of systematically jointed, massive rocks, including granite, dolerite, basalt and sedimentary rocks such as silicified sandstone. It occurs as the result of the chemical alteration of such rocks along intersecting joints.
Why are stones rounded?
How do stones become round in shape?
Why do rocks get smaller downstream?
This is because the further downstream material is carried then the greater the time available for it to be eroded by attrition and abrasion which makes rocks and stones smaller and rounder.