Environmental Earth Sciences

, 76:739 | Cite as

Petrophysical and mechanical properties of Euganean trachyte and implications for dimension stone decay and durability performance

  • Luigi Germinario
  • Siegfried Siegesmund
  • Lara Maritan
  • Claudio Mazzoli
Original Article
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Abstract

Euganean trachyte is a subvolcanic porphyritic rock extracted in northern Italy with an age-old tradition of use as dimension stone, historically linked, in particular, to the fervent building activity brought by the Roman Empire and, later on, the Republic of Venice Serenissima. The results of a comprehensive petrophysical and mechanical characterization of Euganean trachyte from the most representative quarries are discussed here, involving the following properties: density, porosity, water absorption, capillary water uptake, hygroscopic water adsorption, hydric/hygric dilatation, water vapor diffusion, thermal expansion, and resistance to salt attack and abrasion. The different trachyte varieties, although belonging to the same quarry basin, exhibit a relatively wide array of technical performances, which are strongly dependent on pore volume, size, size distribution, shape, and degree of interconnection, controlling modes and rates of water transport and retention. Therefore, indications are provided for evaluating durability performance of the stone, with stress on water-driven weathering. Complementary information is finally given on the possible criteria followed in the antiquity for properly selecting the trachyte quarries to be exploited, and by a comparison with the properties of the most important trachytes extracted in Europe.

Keywords

Volcanic rock Building stone Technical properties Pore-size distribution Weathering Quality assessment 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Alessandro Borghi and Roberto Cossio (Uni. Torino) for the µ-XRF analyses, and Peter Machner and Martin Schmidt (Uni. Kassel) for the help during the abrasion tests. Thanks are also due to Luís Sousa (Uni. Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro), Christian Knell, and, in particular, Wanja Wedekind (Uni. Göttingen) for their support during the petrophysical tests. The review and comments on an early draft of the manuscript by Giuseppe Cultrone (Uni. Granada) are also much appreciated. Finally, the authors are grateful to Michelangelo Dalla Francesca (Cave Pietra Montemerlo s.r.l.) and Fabio Licenza (Trachite Euganea s.r.l.) for providing trachyte samples from M. Merlo and M. Rovarolla quarries, and to the following people for kindly sending the photographic material of the trachytes extracted in Europe: Pierre Boivin (Uni. Blaise Pascal), Cristina Carvalho (LNEG, S. Mamede de Infesta), Birte Graue (LWL, Münster), Luis Enrique Hernández Gutiérrez (Gobierno de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife), Reinhard Kögler (Deutsches Naturstein Archiv, Wunsiedel), and Maria Isabel Prudêncio (Uni. Lisboa).

Funding

University of Padova (Research Project No. CPDA151883/15 of CM); DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service, Short-Term Research Grants 2016 – 57214227 to LG); European Union (Erasmus+ grant to LG).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of GeosciencesUniversity of PadovaPaduaItaly
  2. 2.Geoscience CenterGeorg-August-Universität GöttingenGöttingenGermany

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