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The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effects of ice on rocks. In the desertic city of El Paso, Texas, rocks tend to crack, causing small pieces of such to fall away. The breakage occurs due to the thermal stress that the rocks undergo throughout the day. A contraction that happens during the day due to the hot weather and the expansion that occurs during the night due to the cold weather causes a process known as the "freeze-thaw" process. (BBC,2020) Weathering is the cause of this "freeze-thaw" action. Weathering is defined as the breakdown of rocks and minerals. Weathering can be affected by water, ice, acids, salts, plants, animals, and temperature changes. Frost weathering or "cryofacturing" is the specific weathering process that takes place in this experiment.
El Paso, Texas, is known as the "Sun City" due to having an average of 302 sunny days a year (Language Plus, 2020) However, residents have been experiencing a switch in temperatures lately, as winter arrives. The sudden shift in temperature piqued my interest in how it might affect our surroundings, more specifically rocks.

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Since the research suggests that the longer the freezing-thawing process occurs the greater the rock breakage is, it is hypothesized that the ten rocks will have signs of erosion after give days.

If a rock is frozen and thawed for five days, then it will break causing erosion to occur.

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Temperature in which the rocks were frozen and thawed. Freezer in which the rocks were kept stayed at a temperature of 30 degrees Farenheit throughout the experiment. The environment in which the rocks were thawed stayed at a temperature of 70 degrees Farenheit throughout the experiment.

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The type of rocks obtained; the amount of water provided to each container. The types of rocks obtained were picked from random places throughout the city. Therefore, I was not able to pick out specific types of rocks when choosing. Furthermore, the containers were filled with water up until reaching the top of the rocks. I decided that this was an independent variable since it was not an exact amount.

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-10 water bottles
-10 rocks of different sizes and shapes
-A pair of scissors
-A permanent marker
-Post-it notes
-A container in which the water can be poured out of
-A tray
-Water

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1. Gather all of your materials

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Determine what type of rocks you have and label them using a post-it note. I had two different kinds of rocks: metamorphic and sedimentary. I was able to determine what type of rock they were with the help of the attached You-Tube video.

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Rocks & Minerals : Identifying Types of Rocks

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Empty the water from the water bottles into the container. Afterwards, cut the water bottles in half.

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Label each water bottle with the name of the type of rock that will be inside of it. Insert the rocks into water bottles. Place bottles on top of tray.

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Fill each bottle containing a rock with water, until the top of such rock is reached. Place the tray with the bottles on the freezer overnight. Make sure that they are in a straight position.

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Take the tray out of the fridge the following morning and allow the bottles to thaw for the rest of the day. Once they are fully thawed, place the tray with the bottles inside the freezer again for the rest of the night.

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Run experiment five more times until five nights have passed.

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Ten rocks varying in size and shape are picked out to be frozen and thawed throughout a period of five days. The same temperature is given to each rock when being frozen, and when being thawed. The rocks are taken inside the freezer at 8pm every night, and out of the freezer at 8 am every morning. The results are determined by following the scientist's point of view.
No changes were made throughout the five days in which this experiment was performed
The bigger the rock, the more particles that were released. Furthermore, a piece of rock fell off the biggest rock. All of the rocks let off particles in one way or another.

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After five days, the freezing-thawing process allowed for some erosion to show up at the bottom of the water bottles. There were particles of rock at the bottom of every water bottle. Unexpectedly, a piece of rock fell off of rock #3 which is the biggest rock of the experiment. This was unexpected since there was an assumption that the bigger the rock, the harder it would be for erosion to show.

In the hypothesis, it was thought that the 10 rocks would have some type of erosion after 5 days; therefore, the hypothesis was correct about time directly affecting the freezing-thawing process.

A possible consideration would be prolonging the time in which the rocks stay in the freezer for. Though the expansion change would likely be small, it is not known if that would have had an effect on the rocks and therefore the erosion.

The next step of this research would be to perform the experiment again, but through a longer period of time. Starting with a month and reaching up to a year.

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Piece of rock fell off

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UK, B. (2020). Physical weathering - The rock cycle - KS3 Chemistry Revision - BBC Bitesize. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwd2mp3/revision/3

Learn About El Paso, Texas ("Sun City"): Language Plus Inc. (2020, November 07). Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://languageplus.edu/institute/el-paso-texas/

https://youtu.be/tQUe9C40NEE

https://youtu.be/NwT1e8R4hz0