Salt Weathering and Inselbergs

Abstract

RECENTLY, Wellman and Wilson1 have directed attention to ‘salt weathering’, that is, ‘the fragmentation of rocks by the crystallization of salts’, as a geomorphic process of appreciable efficiency, especially in arid regions and along the sea coasts, but also at other places. They have shown that the formation of ‘rock meal’ and the development of pitted and cavernous rock surfaces are the most obvious symptoms of this type of rock decay. During my field work, particularly in the Alps of Central Switzerland, I have here and there come across rock meal linings as described by these authors, for example, under overhanging rock ledges and at cave entrances, and in some cases the presence of ‘salts’ was obvious, either visible in form of efflorescences or verifiable by the taste of the rock meal. Once, I could even watch a mouse licking eagerly the salty rock meal. Such observations certainly lend support to the authors' findings.