1. A physically homogeneous mixture of two or more substances in which solid, liquid, or gaseous phases may combine in one of those phases. A constituent of a solution can be separated out by changing its phase, e.g. boiling, condensing, or freezing. Where a solution is formed by dissolving a quantity of one substance in a larger quantity of another, the smaller quantity is called the ‘solute’, the larger quantity, the ‘solvent’. Compare colloid.
2. A weathering process by which weakly bonded ionic components of minerals are detached through the attraction of water molecules (which carry a positive electrical charge at one end and a negative charge at the other, although they are neutral overall), and then carried away from the weathering environment. Halites and the sulphates and carbonates of magnesium and calcium are especially vulnerable. Solution is usually the first stage of chemical weathering.