Influence of the stress field on weathering and erosion of sandstone landforms

The influence of mechanical stress on weathering and erosion has been overlooked in works focused on sandstone landforms formation, although stress has been shown to be a key factor in the formation of a number of different sandstone landforms recently. The main goal of the doctoral thesis is to understand the relationship between mechanical stress and weathering or erosion in the formation and development of sandstone landforms. The influence of mechanical stress on the mode of weathering and the rate of disintegration of the material forming historical monuments in Petra, Jordan was investigated on the site and on samples in laboratory. A negative exponential dependence has been proven between the speed of salt weathering and the magnitude of uniaxial compression of Petra sandstone samples. The role of mechanical stress as a mechanism controlling the formation and development of the shape of sandstone forms was further studied in rock overhangs, sandstone arcades and rock gates in the Czech Republic and the USA. The doctoral thesis presents and verifies a method using Střeleč sandstone as a natural analogue in physical models simulating weathering and erosion of cemented sandstone. These physical models usually take the form of a reduced initial shape of a sandstone object created in situ from..