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Continental Margins
What is weathering and erosion? Weathering is basically the breakdown and alteration of rocks and minerals at or close to the Earth's surface into products that are more in equilibrium with the conditions found in its environment. Erosion is "the removal of weathered rocks by moving water, wind, ice, or gravity" (Thomas and Turk). These two processes together help make the Earth's surface how it is today. Weathering is a process that is going on most all of the time and involves little or no movement of the decomposed minerals and rocks. There are two main types of weathering that occur on Earth's surface: physical, and chemical.
Physical weathering, also called mechanical weathering, is the break down of rocks into smaller sized pieces without altering the composition of the rocks and minerals. Some types of physical weathering include, exfoliation, frost wedging, and thermal expansion. Exfoliation is also often referred to as unloading. This is a......

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