Freeze‐thaw weathering: The cold region “Panacea”1

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Abstract
Freeze‐thaw weathering is commonly cited as a major agency of landform development in high latitudes and at high altitudes. This is, however, largely an unsubstantiated qualitative judgment. The reality is a paucity of data regarding key factors, such as rock temperature and interstitial rock moisture content data, necessary for the correct assumption of freeze‐thaw rock weathering. The problem is compounded when it is presumed that angular clasts in cold regions are the result of freeze‐thaw weathering and then this argument is used as a basis for the interpretation, and possible paleoclimatic reconstruction, of Quaternary environments. In reality, angular clasts can be produced by a variety of weathering processes and there are no criteria that can identify a clast as being the product of freeze‐thaw weathering. Even the term “freeze‐thaw”; is really a collective noun, for it encompasses a range of individual mechanisms, each requiring different controlling conditions and, potentially, generating different weathering effects. This problem is discussed and some of the fallacies outlined.