So what colour would this iconic, vivid chunk of rock be without a little chemical decay?

In that case, it would be easy to attribute to the chemical action of the sea the chemical decay already caused by subaerial weathering.

Vinegar syndrome is the result of chemical decay and produces "buckling and shrinking, embrittlement, and bubbling".

Polysaccharides also have low preservation potential, unless they are highly cross-linked; this interconnection is most common in structural tissues, and renders them resistant to chemical decay.

This interconnectedness makes the chemicals less prone to chemical decay, and also means they are a poorer source of energy so less likely to be digested by scavenging organisms.

The number of variations among six billion humans might seem impossibly large because in principle every letter in the genome can change, whether by chemical decay, a hit from stray radiation or a copying error.

FOX-7 has a two-carbon backbone rather than a benzene ring, but the amino and nitro groups have similar effects in both cases according to published reports on sensitivity and chemical decay processes of FOX-7.