Weathering breaks down and loosens the surface minerals of rock so they can be transported away by agents of erosion such as water, wind and ice. There are two types of weathering: mechanical and chemical. Mechanical weathering is the disintegration of rock into smaller and smaller fragments. Frost action is an effective form of mechanical weathering. When water trickles down into fractures and pores of rock, then freezes, its volume increases by almost 10 percent.
(July 2002) Despite the fact that sub-Saharan Africa contains only about 11 percent of the Earth's population, the region is the world's epicenter of HIV/AIDS. The numbers are daunting. Adult HIV prevalence is 1.2 percent worldwide (0.6 percent in North America), but it is 9.0 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.
Washington DC has a particularly high incidence of HIV/AIDS, about 2.7% overall but much higher in the Black male population. In the United States, homosexuals make up about 57% of the total HIV-positive population (2011 data), and 63% of new HIV cases (2010 data).