Weathering of Viamão granodiorite, south Brazil: Part 2 – Initial porosity of un-weathered rock controls porosity development in the critical zone

Abstract

The development of porosity during rock weathering is a key process controlling nutrients release, water holding capacity available for plants and water flow. Here we used X-ray Computed Tomography (XRCT) and 14C PolyMethylMethAcrylate (PMMA) autoradiography to show how cracks are created and enlarged during initial weathering stages (saprock and saprolite) of granodiorite in southern Brazil (Viamão - RS). The physical evolution is characterized by imaging the pore network, using 14C-PMMA and XRCT methods. Combined with bulk porosity measurements, they highlight the increase in porosity with the degree of weathering (un-weathered rock Φ = 1.66 %, saprolite Φ = 11.7 %). This increase is related to the joint increase of the density of the cracks (un-weathered rock D = 0.28 mm−1, saprolite D = 0.94 mm−1) and of the average opening of the microcracks (un-weathered rock w = 2.4 µm, saprolite w = 3.9 µm) and macrocracks (un-weathered rock w = 176 µm, saprolite w = 400 µm). However, these average crack openings do not account for the variability of the openings that govern the flows, characterized here by specific distribution ranging from the submicrometre to the centimetre scale. The results highlight that the pore network of the un-weathered rock plays a key role in the initial stages or incipient weathering. The density and aperture and cracks increase following the subcritical cracking concept and new pores are formed by chemo-mechanical processes. The presence/absence of initial fractures in the regolith is certainly a key parameter controlling the weathering of different rock types (mafic vs felsic).