Editing Weathering (section)

===Salt-crystal growth {{anchor|Salt weathering}}===
[[File:Tafoni 03.jpg|thumb|[[Tafoni]] at [[Salt Point State Park]], Sonoma County, California]]
{{main|Haloclasty}}
{{distinguish-redirect|Salt wedging|Salt wedge (hydrology)}}

''Salt crystallization'' (also known as '''salt weathering''', '''salt wedging''' or [[haloclasty]]) causes disintegration of rocks when [[salinity|saline]] solutions seep into cracks and joints in the rocks and evaporate, leaving salt [[crystals]] behind. As with ice segregation, the surfaces of the salt grains draw in additional dissolved salts through capillary action, causing the growth of salt lenses that exert high pressure on the surrounding rock. Sodium and magnesium salts are the most effective at producing salt weathering. Salt weathering can also take place when [[pyrite]] in sedimentary rock is chemically weathered to [[iron(II) sulfate]] and [[gypsum]], which then crystallize as salt lenses.{{sfn|Leeder|2011|p=18}}

Salt crystallization can take place wherever salts are concentrated by evaporation. It is thus most common in [[arid]] climates where strong heating causes strong evaporation and along coasts.{{sfn|Leeder|2011|p=18}} Salt weathering is likely important in the formation of [[tafoni]], a class of cavernous rock weathering structures.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Turkington |first1=Alice V. |last2=Paradise |first2=Thomas R. |title=Sandstone weathering: a century of research and innovation |journal=Geomorphology |date=April 2005 |volume=67 |issue=1–2 |pages=229–253 |doi=10.1016/j.geomorph.2004.09.028|bibcode=2005Geomo..67..229T }}</ref>