Weathering Processes in Cold Region: Questions, New Ideas and Approaches, and New Findings

Dear Colleagues,

At the foundation of the problem, there seems to be three initial questions: Is weathering in cold regions different from anywhere else? Indeed, what comprises a 'cold region'? Given that, sensu stricto, weathering alone cannot produce landforms (exception: Thermal contraction cracks?), how does weathering interplay with transport to produce landforms? As we move forward in the 21st century we seem less and less bound by the old, well entrenched, concepts built on climatic foundations, coupled with an increase in meaningful data. Our concepts now seem to cross the old climatic boundaries (e.g., rocks in environments of cold air temperatures may have temperatures somewhat comparable to hot deserts) that were previously thought as inviolate. This, in turn, particularly when transport is included, raises questions as to whether many of the landforms, hitherto thought to exemplify a ‘cold region’, are indeed the product of that climate?

Thus, further questions arise: What processes take place now? When do those processes take place and what are their impacts (processes occurring in sequence with different degrees of effectiveness)? Are the present processes creating, maintaining, or destroying the landform? What are the time scales we are considering? Even the use of the term ‘cold climate’ leads to meaningful questions (the more so when we consider our nearby planets) such as: What is actually cold? Is it always cold? What is the role, if any, of that 'cold'? Throughout we are also challenged by the understanding (and timing) of the interplay between weathering and transport to create landforms. Meaningful data on rock temperatures have changed or challenged many of our long-cherished (data-free) notions and these data are now beginning to include rock moisture (and its chemistry), which further upsets old ideas (chemical weathering in the summer may play a large role); the recent addition of the biotic component further changes our interpretations. Basically, we are at an exciting stage of many more questions than than we have answers to.

Thus, as we move forward to a more holistic reconsideration of rock decay in an area of cold air temperatures and try to couple that with its interplay, in terms of both process and timing, of transport to create landforms, there is a need for new ideas, new data-based concepts, new weathering processes, a better understanding of time scales, and, perhaps, even a re-evaluation of the whole notion of 'cold region weathering'. Thus, a host of exciting questions, problems, and challenges need to be faced. Here, there is the opportunity to deal with some of these issues and to show new ideas and to provide new data. The challenge is given: Bring our understanding of weathering and landform thought to be related to cold regions in to the 21st Century!

Dr. Kevin Hall
Guest Editor

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• cold region
• weathering processes
• transport
• landforms
• time scales