Cryogenic weathering of granite, northern Victoria land, Antarctica

Cavernous weathering phenomena ('tagoni') are well developed on the graniti c and gneissic metasedimentary rock of the Northern Foothills region of Ant arctica. Thin sections of weathered bedrock indicate that physical disinteg ration is associated with the preferential micro-fracturing of quartz miner als. The enhanced susceptibility of quartz to fracture under cryogenic cond itions, especially when salts lower the freezing temperature, is thought to explain why this unusual type of granite weathering is Especially well dev eloped in extremely cold and arid polar deserts. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wi ley & Sons, Ltd.