Mechanical weathering rates on Signy Island, maritime antarctic

Abstract By means of re‐evaluating a number of properties of rock tablets left in the field for varying time periods, an estimation of rock breakdown rates is attained. From data obtained during the last five years, it would appear that rates are very slow, only of the order of 2% mass loss per 100 years. These rates refer to omnidirectionally frozen, relatively wet samples and, on the basis of laboratory simulation results, are over 50 times greater than for unidirectionally frozen bedrock. It is suggested that mechanical weathering rates in the maritime Antarctic are very slow.