2nd Blog

I took a closer look at the rocks in Santorini and the weathering that has decayed and shaped them. I came across this rock landscape in the village of Imerovigli, Santorini and noticed some salt weathering, especially on the rocks on top. Salt weathering is a physical process that occurs when water cannot wash away salts due to a deficiency of it. Crystallization, a main process of salt weathering, happens as water spreads through fractures that contain ions which form crystals as they expand. Heat and cooling pressure also causes salt weathering.

Next, we have chemical weathering which chemically changes rocks and minerals. The first thing that stood out to me here was the reddish color on the rock which hints to oxidation being a likely process. Oxidation is like rust in which free oxygen reacts with minerals that alters and ion’s oxidation.

A slope present here suggests some type of mass wasting. It looks like slides to me. Slides happen with weakness present in the rock as down movement occurs along its plane. Translation slides are flat planes while rotational slump slides are curved planes of failure. Thus, this picture illustrates a rotational slump.

This picture was taken in beautiful Oia, Santorini. Looking to the right side of the picture we see a rock with finger size holes called Alveoli. The holes come from cavernous weathering, a type of salt weathering. Now, looking at the rocks on the left side tells me that a mass wasting event perhaps occurred and caused all these rocks to fall. Falls begin with detachment and are due to steep slopes or undercutting.