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Roman Concrete Explained

posted by n1 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @08:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the hard-as-nails dept.

takyon writes:

Researchers have unlocked the chemistry of Roman concrete which has resisted the elements for thousands of years.

Ancient sea walls built by the Romans used a concrete made from lime and volcanic ash to bind with rocks.

Now scientists have discovered that elements within the volcanic material reacted with sea water to strengthen the construction.

[...] This new study says the scientists found significant amounts of tobermorite growing through the fabric of the concrete, with a related, porous mineral called phillipsite.

The researchers say that the long-term exposure to sea water helped these crystals to keep on growing over time, reinforcing the concrete and preventing cracks from developing.

Source: BBC News

American Mineralogist DOI: 10.2138/am-2017-5993CCBY

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @02:27PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @02:27PM (#535197)

    But, there is no reason (yet, at least) to think that they knew the concrete placed in seawater would grow stronger with time.

    Are you just making stuff up? Here is the second sentence of TFA:

    Pliny the Elder, however, in first century CE emphasized rock-like cementitious processes involving volcanic ash (pulvis) “that as soon as it comes into contact with the waves of the sea and is submerged becomes a single stone mass (fierem unum lapidem), impregnable to the waves and every day stronger” (Naturalis Historia 35.166).

    http://ammin.geoscienceworld.org/content/102/7/1435 [geoscienceworld.org]

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @02:38PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 05 2017, @02:38PM (#535203) Journal

    My bad. I read TFS, and went with various articles I've read in the past. I've not read Pliny's quote before.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:57PM (#535389)

    Are you just making stuff up?

    He is Runaway1956, the answer is, "yes". And he does not even know who Pliny was, which is why he has to make stuff up, because he "thinks" without reading.