Abstract
The dusky brown to black coating of rock varnish dominates bare rock surfaces of many desert landforms (Oberlander, 1994). Thicknesses less than even 0.020 mm (or 20 micrometres, μ m) are enough to darken light-colored rock types (Fig. 21.1). The gradual pace of change on many desert landforms permits the slow accretion of rock varnish at rates of a few micrometres per thousand years (Dorn, 1998; Liu and Broecker, 2000). Just about any rock type will accumulate varnish, in so long as rock-surface erosion is slow enough to permit varnish accretion.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Geomorphology of Desert Environments |
| Publisher | Springer Netherlands |
| Pages | 657-673 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781402057182 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 1 2009 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science(all)
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
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Dorn, R. (2009). Rock varnish and its use to study climatic change in geomorphic settings. In Geomorphology of Desert Environments (pp. 657-673). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5719-9_21