Weathering indices used in evaluation of the weathering state of rock material

Abstract

There are various definition of weathering and differences between authors seem to steam in part from the different viewpoints of pedolog, geomorpholog, geolog, geochemists and geology engineer. In this study, weathering is handled from various aspects such as time, form and phases of progress, studies it is majored and research scale. The engineering behavior of rock materials depends not only on stress state and stress history but also on the physical, mineralogical and chemical change of the rock materials due to weathering. Weathering indices are used to define these changes due to weathering. Several weathering indices have been devised for quantifying the changes in the intrinsic properties of rocks from different points of view, some of which can be related to the engineering properties of weathered rocks. The most commonly used methods can be broadly categorized as chemical, mineralogical-petrographical, petro-chemical and engineering indices. In this study, the brief literature review for weathering indices used to evaluate of the effects for weathering of rock materials.