quarrying

noun

the business, occupation, or act of extracting useful material (such as building stone) from quarries
(plucking) A process of physical/mechanical weathering that involves repeated freeze–thaw cycles at the base of a glacier or ice cap, weakening the underlying rock, fragments of which are plucked out by the ice as it flows over it
an exogenetic process involved in coastal erosion, in which waves dislodge material by striking rocks with great force and compressing the air in cracks and the spaces between loose particles
the removal of already-loosened bed material and/or material resulting from bed failure