The weathering of rock fragments at or near Earth’s surface results in the in situ conversion of unweathered core material to weathering rind. In field settings, rind thicknesses have been used to constrain the relative ages of surficial deposits. The progressive conversion of core to rind material is marked by abrupt changes in physical and chemical properties. In clasts with low-porosity parent material, the reaction front between the reactive core material and the depleted rind is a narrow (<1000 μm wide) feature. Detailed investigations of chrono- and climosequences suggest that parent material composition, ambient climatic conditions (mean annual temperature and precipitation), and curvature of the core-rind boundary exert first-order controls on weathering rind thickness. Uranium-series disequilibria dating can reliably quantify rates of weathering rind formation and the duration of weathering. Rind formation is modeled as a diffusion-limited process. The straightforward weathering rind system has proven a well-constrained intermediate between laboratory and landscape weathering systems.

Sak, Peter B. Weathering Rinds as Tools for Constraining Reaction Kinetics and Duration of Weathering at the Clast-Scale. In Hydrogeology, Chemical Weathering, and Soil Formation, edited by Allen Hunt, Markus Egli, and Boris Faybishenko, 141-162. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, 2021.

Peter Sak is a professor of Earth Sciences at Dickinson College.

For more information on the published version, visit Wiley's Website. https://www.wiley.com/enus/Hydrogeology%2C+Chemical+Weathering%2C+and+Soil+Formation-p-9781119563969

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