Laboratory report

Break Me Down

Objectives:

Demonstrate how does temperature affect and react with Kremil S in the process of
chemical and mechanical weathering.
To know how long a half Kremil s reacts and became sediments in a room temperature
water.

Materials:

Kremil S
Room temperature water
Plastic bottle cup
Timer
Marker

Procedure:

Prepare all the needed materials.

Label the plastic cup to what water it belongs.
Divide the Kremil s in half.
Drop it in the water and start to record the time.

Results:
The half Kremil S in a room temperature water took almost 12 minutes to be sediments. The
particles floating on the top of the water little by little it sink, and the small particles in the
bottom rises as the water dissolve it, in which we considered weathering. Since weathering is
the broken down of rocks into simple and smaller particles. The pressure if the water causes the
Kremil S to weaken and break down.

Discussion:
1. In what setup does the weathering occurred rapidly?
 2. What is the relationship between particle size and the speed it requires to dissolve?
How does this relationship apply in weathering in nature?
3. Using this activity as a model, explain how mechanical weathering (breaking or crushing)
contribute to chemical weathering ( dissolution )? How can you demonstrate that
chemical weathering can hasten mechanical weathering?
4. Compare dissolution times in room temperature water and hot water. Using this model,
what can you deduce about the relationship between temperature and weathering?
5. Is there marked difference in the dissolution rate in water and vinegar both at room
temperature? What can caused the difference? What does dissolution in vinegar
simulate in nature? In what environment would weathering rate be fastest? Slowest?
Explain your reasons based on observations in this activity

.
Answers:

1. Different minerals weather at different rate that are climate dependent. In the hot
water temperature had the rapid weathering occurred since the higher the temperature
the faster the break down of sediments because it weaken the sediments.
2. Temperature is the number one factor that causes weathering because it causes the
unstable environment that leads to break down. Continuous cycle of weather cause
rocks to break down. High temperature can lead to expansion of rocks while low
temperature cool the rocks and it contracts. As this process continue the rocks break
down.
3. How quickly chemical weathering breaks a rock is directly proportional to the surface
rocks exposed. Thus it is also related to mechanical weathering, which creates more
exposed surfaced area by breaking the rock down into smaller ones. The greater
number of pieces, the greater total amount of surface area exposed to chemical
weathering.
4. The higher the temperature, the higher the weathering rate and vice versa.
5. Theres difference in dissolution. The pressure and temperature caused the difference
since in water can cause intense chemical weathering on other hand, the most
abundant natural acid is carbonic acid, a weak acid consists of dissolved carbon dioxide
in water. In the hot water has the highest rate of weathering and in vinegar has the
lowest rate of weathering.
In our activity we focused on the dissolution in room temperature water of the Kremil S,
we observed that the half Kremil S became sediments within 12 minutes and 30 seconds
exposed in water.
Conclusion:
Therefore weathering depends on the pressure and temperature of the environment to where
it is. Many factors affect weathering. After our observation, we conclude that faster weathering
occur in a place wherein there is a high temperature.
LABORATORY REPORT IN
EARTH SCIENCE

Submitted by:

Caberio, Ariane Mae D.

Arandia, Ervin F.