Greg Pope

Montclair State University · Department of Earth and Environmental Studies

Weathering, or rock decay processes are at the center of the Critical Zone. The weathering engine modifies the Earth's crust to adjust to surface atmospheric, hydrologic, and biotic conditions, relevant to the many fields that find interest in the Critical Zone. Regolith refers to the body of decayed rock or sediment, coincidental to (and parallel...

The "Villa of the Antonines", located at the 18th mile of the ancient Via Appia, is so far the least explored of the ancient Roman imperial residences in the area of the Alban Hills. Excavations at "Villa of the Antonines" permit an investigation of subsurface deterioration of cultural stone, addressing two primary questions: (1) What are the deter...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Arizona State University, 1994. Bibliography: leaves [190]-219.

While most research on quartz weathering has focused primarily on surface textures and morphologies, very little is known about the internal weathering of quartz. This study demonstrates that internal weathering is ubiquitous in quartz. Internal weathering is measured in terms of porosity, which represents mass loss from the quartz grain, hence sil...

Weathering processes are partially responsible for a characteristic geomorphology that occurs in the tropics and subtropics. Resistant landforms such as inselbergs, extreme solution processes such as silica karst, and deep weathering profiles with end stage weathering products such as laterite and kaolin are common features of tropical weathering....

The genesis of detrital sediments could not take place without weathering. Both chemical and mechanical weathering processes work toward the fragmentation, disaggregation, and chemical alteration of rocks to form clastic particles (clay to boulder size) and solutes. Clastic particles are entrained into the sediment system by various geomorphic proc...

Weathering and soil geomorphology constitutes a specific subfield of earth surface processes, equally important in the process system in creating the surface landscape. While weathering and soils are of interest to a broad range of sciences, their role in geomorphology is specific and important. Weathering is the precursor to both chemical and mech...

Rock weathering is a natural process in which exposed rock is broken down. Though it is a natural process, weathering does not occur exclusively in natural environments; artificial rock structures (i.e. buildings, monuments, tombstones etc.) are at the same risk of weathering as any natural rock formation. The question is at what rate do rocks weat...

High-intensity forest fires can degrade, collapse, or completely destroy clay minerals in soils, with signatures of these changes remaining for years after the burns. To ascertain immediate impacts of high-intensity fire on soil clay minerals and mineral recov-ery over time, soil from the 2002 Hayman, Colorado, fire was analyzed by X-ray diffractio...

The upper reaches of the Big Flat Brook drainage, northwest of Kittatinny Mountain, contain a variety of glacial, pro-glacial, and periglacial deposits from the Late Quaternary. The area is dominated by recessional moraines and ubiquitous ground moraine, along with meltwater deposits, drumlins, and possible post-glacial periglacial features. We hav...

Since Goldich (1938), papers and textbooks in physical geology, sedimentology, geochemistry, geomorphology, soil science, and physical geography have indicated that olivine weathers first. This is not the case in the weathering rinds of lava flows on Hualalai and Mauna Kea volcanoes, Hawaii. We examined the constructional surfaces of lava flow surf...

Climate change caused by increased anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases is a long-term climate hazard with the potential to alter the intensity, temporal pattern, and spatial extent of the urban heat island (UHI) in metropolitan regions. Particular meteorological conditions—including high temperature, low cloud...

Implementation of urban heat island (UHI) mitigation strategies such as increased vegetative cover and higher-albedo surface materials can reduce the impacts of biophysical hazards in cities, including heat stress related to elevated temperatures, air pollution and associated public health effects. Such strategies also can lower the demand for air-...

An and Porter (Geology 25 (1997) 603) reported six high dust-influx events of millennial timescales recovered from the last interglacial paleosol S1 and correlated them to six cool events of millennial timescale in the North Atlantic. However, the complexity of soil-forming processes may have made the chronological correlation with the North Atlant...

Montclair State University draws most of its undergraduates from urban areas and surrounding suburbs in northern New Jersey. A significant portion of our student body is a non-traditional, often older student who has returned to school but is still working full or part-time and may have family commitments. Only about 20% of our students live on cam...

Pedogenic and weathering processes are intricately related to paleoclimate evidence in loess. Soil processes (clay formation and translocation, carbonate concentration, and iron alteration and translocation) are all tied to weathering reactions that occur in the soil. Proxy indicators reveal environmental change, but the environment itself may alte...

Great monumental places—Petra, Giza, Angkor, Stonehenge, Tikal, Macchu Picchu, Rapa Nui, to name a few—are links to our cultural past. They evoke a sense of wonderment for their aesthetic fascination if not for their seeming permanence over both cultural and physical landscapes. However, as with natural landforms, human constructs are subject to we...

Petroglyphs weather at varying rates, compared to the unengraved host rock into which they are carved. Most petroglyphs are significantly harder or significantly softer than surrounding rock, depending on the nature of weathering. Variability and intensity of weathering probably introduces error into radiocarbon, rock varnish and microerosion datin...

Anthropogenic organic compounds and pollutants are routinely used to indicate human presence in anthrosols, but little is understood about human impact on pedogenic processes. This article addresses human impacts on pedogenic rock and mineral weathering. Relatively unexplored from the soil perspective, human impacts on the weathering system can be...

The Alentejo region of Portugal is known for a high concentration of Neolithic-aged megalithic monuments: tombs (dolmens or antas) and ceremonial features such as standing stones (menhirs) and stone circles (cromleques). Concentrations of these monuments tend to be found on or near weathered granite terrains. Unloading slabs and remnant corestones...

Quartz is regarded as one of the minerals most resistant to chemical weathering. Nevertheless, quartz does weather under certain conditions. Several geographic phenomena, including downstream sorting of fluvial sediments, the distribution of loess, and the absence of silica in tropical soils, may be directly or indirectly related to quartz weatheri...

The prevailing theory used to explain geographical variability in weathering is based on visual correlations with climatic regions. For instance, mechanical weathering is assumed to predominate in warm and cold deserts. Yet this visual perspective fails to account for a diversity and quantity of data at the mineral-atmosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere...