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The hyper-arid Namib Desert is an ancient desert of great lithological diversity. Weathering plays a key role in landscape evolution in the Namib which, in spite of its aridity, has a number of sources of moisture - rainfall, fogs, dews and groundwater seepage - which enhance weathering. Among the weathering processes that have been the subject of recent study in the central Namib are salt, thermal and lichen weathering which, in often complex associations of processes, contribute to the array of small scale weathering features found on marble and granite outcrops here. At the landscape scale weathering in the central Namib is also highly interrelated with erosion and the development of geochemical sediments (calcrete, gypcrete, tufas etc), whilst weathering ’hotspots’ are thought to be important sources of fine sediment production. Over the long term weathering has played important roles in landscape evolution here which, despite localized weathering hotspots, has been very slow for much of the Cenozoic. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.