Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Weathering

Rock to regolith

Nature Geoscience volume 3, pages 305–306 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

The amount of pore space in most unweathered granite is too small to support a plant-based ecosystem. But porosity grows as intact rock interacts with surface waters beneath the soil.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Surface waters interact with underlying bedrock, causing it to crumble into disaggregated mineral grains.

References

  1. Carson, R. Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1962).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Graham, R. C., Rossi, A. M. & Hubbert, K. R. GSA Today 20, 4–9 (2010); erratum http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/20/2/.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. White, A. F., Bullen, T. D., Vivit, D. V., Schulz, M. S. & Clow, D. W. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 63, 1939–1953 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Buss, H. L., Sak, P. B., Webb, S. M. & Brantley, S. L. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 72, 4488–4507 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Jackson, R. B., Moore, L. A., Hoffmann, W. A. Pockman, W. T. & Linder, C. R. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 11387–11392 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Leake, J. R. et al. Mineral. Mag. 72, 85–89 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bonneville, S. et al. Geology 37, 615–618 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Von Blanckenburg, F. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 242, 224–239 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Navarre-Sitchler, A. & Brantley, S. L. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 261, 321–334 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Rossi, A. M. & Graham, R. C. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 74, 172–185 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Wilkinson, B. H. & McElroy, B. J. GSA Bull. 119, 140–156 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Susan L. Brantley is in Pennsylvania State University, 2217 Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, University Park, PA 16802, USA. brantley@eesi.psu.edu,

    Susan L. Brantley

Authors
  1. Susan L. Brantley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brantley, S. Rock to regolith. Nature Geosci 3, 305–306 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo858

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo858

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene