Evaluating the Effect of Climate on the Weathering Process of Rocks (Case Study: The Telar Watershed)

This study aims to identify the types and intensity of weathering and morphogentic zones in the Talar watershed of Mazandaran Province following the local climate. Climate diversity is present from south to north in the Talar watershed due to the unique location of Mazandaran Province which is between the sea and the Alborz Mountain range. On the other hand, no method of studying the weathering of rocks has been used in the Talar watershed; hence, the weathering process and morphogentic regions in this watershed are unknown. To zonate the state of weathering and geomorphogentic regions based on Lewis Peltier models, climatic data including average annual precipitation and temperature of 8 weather stations with appropriate data and length of the statistical period of 1966-2016, were collected from the Meteorological Organization and registered in the Arc GIS database environment. Then, the Talar watershed's temperature and precipitation trends were found for each station. These maps were used to determine the weathering and morphogenetic regimes in the Talar watershed. A weight value was assigned to each station. Then, they were recorded in the database and were used to build the relevant maps in the Arc GIS environment. The results demonstrated that the Talar watershed is morphogenetically situated in semi-arid, savannah, and temperate zones. Most of these regions are associated with the Savan region (50%) and the fewest are linked with the temperate region (15%). Regarding the weathering process, the Talar watershed contains three types: moderate chemical weathering, low mechanical weathering, and extremely low weathering, with moderate chemical weathering covering the most area (56%).