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Roman Concrete Explained

posted by n1 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @08:21AM   
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

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Original Submission

• Re:Seasteading isn't dead... Re:Seasteading isn't dead... (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday July 05 2017, @08:17PM (1 child)

  by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @08:17PM (#535394) Journal

  2. Financing. The ideas being promoted on seasteading.org all center around luxury housing, rather than starting with a solid, but relatively cheap floating foundation and low cost infrastructure

  But on the plus side, they do allow certain pets. To be specific, white, longhair cats exclusively.

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• Oh those were cats? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @09:58PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @09:58PM (#535426)

  I assumed they were white longhaired monkeys :)

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