CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Hall, K.
Date : 2006.
Title : Perceptions of rock weathering in cold regions: a discussion on space and time attributes of scale.
Publication : Geomorphologie - Relief Processus Environnement
Issue : 3:
Page(s) : 187-196.
Abstract
Simplistically, breakdown of rock in cold environments is frequently viewed as a singularity in the sense that no temporal or spatial scale attribute is ascribed to the notion of weathering (i.e. 'rocks in cold regions are shattered by frost action'). Alternatively, weathering due to frost action is considered to fall into one of two categories - 'macrogelivation' or 'microgelivation': the former being with respect to 'frost wedging' of large blocks or bedrock and the latter to granular disintegration or flaking. Rarely, in most frost weathering studies, are transducer type and data frequency considered in respect to the scale of the weathering under investigation. Thus, the data are often of a spatial scale inappropriate to the issue under review: i.e. the absence of rock temperature at depth for consideration of stresses created by thermal gradients to produce flaking. In much the same way, temporal issues are frequently ignored: the process operative now may be far removed from those which initiated breakdown of that rock. Equally, in cold regions, the transition of process through the annual climate cycle and the synergy that devolves from this is often lost in the preoccupation with the role of cold and hence the need for winter data at the expense of measuring parameters appropriate to the summer. Here data from northern Canada are used as a medium for showing the highly complex and interacting attributes of scale of monitoring and how data determine our perceptions of the weathering regime. It is noted how many of our traditional notions of weathering in cold regions have been highly skewed by the scale attributes of our data and that as these scale attributes of data collection are improved so many of our long-cherished perceptions and paradigms are brought into question.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology