Similiarities between Roman Concrete and Surtsey basalt
surtsey50years
Extreme durability in ancient Roman concretes
By revealing the secrets hidden within ancient Roman architectural and marine concrete
structures and young basalt at Surtsey volcano, Iceland, our investigations in cementitious
materials science are opening new opportunities to develop concrete formulations with
improved durability and service life. These are mimicking the reactions that produce
mineral cements in volcanic glass deposits with the objective of developing innovative
materials to aid ailing concrete infrastructures and address materials encapsulation
needs.
Roman concrete structures. a) The Tomb of Caecilia Metella, Rome (ca. 30 BCE), b)
Sebastos Harbor in Caesarea, Israel (ca. 22–10 CE), c) Trajan’s Markets (ca. 100 CE),
Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Rome. Roman concrete prototypes that grow strätlingite and
Al-tobermorite mineral cements could potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
enhance resilience and self-healing properties, conserve resources, and greatly extend
the service life of cementitious materials in concrete infrastructure and marine environments,
in addition to providing long term encapsulations for hazardous wastes.Fracture analysis of reproduction of Trajan’s Markets mortar. a) P. Brune performs
a fracture testing experiment in the Winter Laboratory at Cornell University. X-ray
tomography results for fractures at (b) 28 days or (c) 180 days of hydration. Well-consolidated
C-A-S-H binder and strätlingite crystals form obstacles for microcrack propagation
in the cementing matrix and interfacial zones of volcanic scoriae, and the cracks
create segmented structures at 180 days hydration. A slow gain in strength is counterbalanced
by growth of a self-reinforcing system of resilient strätlingite plates and fibers
that traverse and partially fill pore spaces.
Surtsey volcano in Iceland (a, b) is the location of the 2017 International Continental
Scientific Drilling Program SUSTAIN project. c) Scanning electron microscope-secondary
electron image of Al-tobermorite from SE-03 core at 124°C and a 147-m inclined depth
below the surface. Mineralogical and geochemical studies of the basaltic tuff over
a wide range of temperatures and fluid compositions are providing new insights into
beneficial corrosion reactions in concretes with glass aggregates.
Marie D. Jackson1, John P. Oleson2, Juhyuk Moon3, Yi Zhang4, Heng Chen5, and Magnus
T. Gudmundsson6
1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
. Juhyuk Moon is assistant pro-fessor in the a. Heng Chen and Yi Zhang are Ph.D.
students in the and ,
2 Department of Greek and Roman Studies, University of Victoria, Canada
3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, South
Korea
4 Singapore National University, Singapore
5 Department of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
6 Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
