Abstract
For centuries, dimension stone marble exploitation from the Estremoz Anticline, south Portugal, leads to a peculiar landscape consisting of hundreds of deep open-pit quarries. In the 80s of the last century, more than 180 quarries operate side-by-side simultaneously. The struggle for interesting outcrops, in addition to private property that legally characterises the mineral masses in Portugal, led to a situation where the quarries very close to each other developed into a well and independently. As the quarries reached greater depths, in several cases over 100 m, issues related to the slope stability became more evident and dangerous. It took an accident that caused 5 deaths due to a slope collapse that destroyed a municipal road for public entities to pay more attention to this issue. Within the scope of the Intervention Plan in Quarries Under Critical Situations (2019–2021), approved at the meeting of the Council of Ministers on February 7 (RCM 50/2019), the University of Évora carried out 34 slope stability studies in approximately 40 exploitation cavities for ornamental marble. This work summarises the identified main situations and the measures recommended for their mitigation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cabral, J., Maciel, J., Lopes, L., Lopes, J., Marques, A., Mustra, C., Freitas, M., & Carreira, P. (2001). Petrographic and isotopic characterisation of marble from the Estremoz Anticline: Its application in identifying the sources of Roman works of art. Journal of Iberian Archeology, 3, 121–128.
Carvalho, J., Vintém, C., Henriques, P., Falé, P., Luís, G., Midões, C., Antunes, C., Dili, A., Saúde, J., Bonito, N., & Sobreiro, S. (2008). Cartografia temática do anticlinal - Zona dos Mármores, Cevalor & INETI.
Casal Moura, A., Carvalho, C., Almeida, I., Saúde, J., Farinha Ramos, J., Augusto, J., Rodrigues, J., Carvalho, J., Martins, L., Matos, M. J., Machado, M., Sobreiro, M., Peres, M., Martins, N., Bonito, N., Henriques, P., & Sobreiro, S. (2007). Mármores e calcários ornamentais de Portugal. INETI.
Gonçalves, F. (1972). Observações sobre o anticlinório de Estremoz: Alguns aspectos geológico-económicos dos mármores. Estudos, Notas e Trabalhos Serviço de Fomento Mineiro, 22(1–2), 121–132.
Goodman, R. E., & Bray, J. (1976). Toppling of rock slopes. ASCE, Proceedings Specialty Conference on Rock Engineering for Foundations and Slopes, Boulder, CO, 2, 201–234.
Hocking, G. (1976). A method for distinguishing between single and double plane sliding of tetrahedral wedges. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 13, 225–226.
Hoek, E., & Bray, J. (1981). Rock slope engineering (3rd edn.). Institute Mining and Metallurgy.
ISRM. International Society for Rock Mechanics (1981). Basic geotechnical description of rock masses. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Science and Geomechanics Abstract, 18, 85–110.
Lopes, L., & Martins, R. (2015). Global heritage stone: Estremoz marbles, Portugal. In D. Pereira, B.R. Marker, S. Kramar, B.J. Cooper, B.E. Schouenborg (Eds.), Global heritage stone: Towards international recognition of building and ornamental stones (vol. 407, pp. 57–74). Geological Society of London, Special Publications.
Markland, J. T. (1972). A useful technique for estimating the stability of rock slopes when the rigid wedge sliding type of failure is expected. Imperial College Rock Mechanics Research Report, 19, 1–10.
Pereira, M., Solá, R., Chichorro, M., Lopes, L., Gerdes, A., & Silva, J. (2012). North-Gondwana assembly, break-up and paleogeography: U-Pb isotope evidence from detrital and igneous zircons of Ediacaran and Cambrian rocks of SW Iberia. Gondwana Research, 22(3–4), 866–881.
Quintas, A. (2021). Os Mármores do Alentejo. História, património e valorização cultural (1850–2020). Universidade de Évora, Évora (Ph.D. Thesis).
Silva, M. (2002). Zonamento das propriedades geotécnicas dos mármores portugueses. In Actas do 8º Congresso Nacional de Geotecnia, Lisboa.
Vintém, C., Henriques, P., Falé, P., Luís, G., Midões, C., Antunes, C., Dili, A., Carvalho, J., Saúde, J., Bonito, N., & Sobreiro, S. (2003). Cartografia temática do anticlinal como instrumento de ordenamento do território e apoio à indústria extractiva. Relatório Final do Projecto. Instituto Geológico e Mineiro e Cevalor, Lisboa.
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) project UIDB/04683/2020—ICT (Institute of Earth Sciences).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lopes, L., Martins, R., Pinho, A., Duarte, I., Faria, P. (2023). Dimension Stone Quarries Risk Assessment Estremoz Marbles. In: Malheiro, A., Fernandes, F., Chaminé, H.I. (eds) Advances in Natural Hazards and Volcanic Risks: Shaping a Sustainable Future. NATHAZ 2022. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25042-2_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25042-2_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-25041-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-25042-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)