surface-parallel compressive stresses can be generated through exhumation that may lead to tensile rock fracture as described below. Thermoelastic strain Rock expands upon heating and contracts upon cooling and different rock-forming minerals have variable rates of thermal expansion / contraction. Daily rock surface temperature variations can be quite large, and many have suggested that stresses created during heating cause the near-surface zone of rock to expand and detach in thin slabs (e.g. Wolters, 1969). Large diurnal or fire-induced temperature fluctuations have been observed to create thin lamination and flaking at the surface of rocks, sometimes labeled exfoliation. However, since diurnal temperature fluctuations only reach a few centimeters depth in rock (due to rock's low thermal conductivity), this theory cannot account for the observed depth of exfoliation jointing that may reach 100 meters. Chemical weathering Mineral weathering by penetrating water can cause flaking of thin shells of rock since the volume of some minerals increases upon hydration. However, not all mineral hydration results in increased volume, while field observations of exfoliation joints show that the joint surfaces have not experienced significant chemical alteration, so this theory can be rejected as an explanation for the origin of large-scale, deeper exfoliation joints. Compressive stress and extensional fracture Large compressive tectonic stresses parallel to the land (or a free) surface can create tensile mode fractures in rock, where the direction of fracture propagation is parallel to the greatest principle compressive stress and the direction of fracture opening is perpendicular to the free surface. This type of fracturing has been observed in the laboratory since at least 1900 (in both uniaxial and biaxial unconfined compressive loading; see Gramberg, 1989). Tensile cracks can form in a compressive stress field due to the influence of pervasive microcracks in the rock lattice and extension of so-called wing cracks from near the tips of preferentially oriented microcracks, which then curve and align with the direction of the principle compressive stress. Fractures formed in this way are sometimes called axial cleavage, longitudinal splitting, or extensional fractures, and are commonly observed in the laboratory during uniaxial compression tests. High horizontal or surface-parallel compressive stress can result from regional tectonic or topographic stresses, or by erosion or excavation of overburden. With consideration of the field evidence and observations of occurrence, fracture mode, and secondary forms, high surface-parallel compressive stresses and extensional fracturing (axial cleavage) seems to be the most plausible theory explaining