Moisture expansion in natural building stones is considered one of the most important factors affecting their weathering and deterioration. The processes that may be responsible for the expansion under determinate relative humidity (hygric dilatation) and water-saturated conditions (hydric dilatation) are generally attributed to the presence of swellable clay minerals. In contrast to this assumption, our investigations show that moisture expansion also takes place in volcanic tuff building stones almost free from clay minerals. To provide a deeper understanding of the processes, swelling and deterioration were performed on 14 volcanic tuffs used as important building stones of different ages, compositions and weathering stages from Mexico, Germany and Hungary. The investigations undertaken include extensive chemical, petrophysical and fabric analyses. The samples show a wide range of effective porosity, microporosity, capillary water absorption, moisture expansion, and CEC values. High moisture expansion does not seem to depend on clay mineral content alone. We also observed that there is no significant effect on dilatation if clay minerals are present but only form a thin coat on the outer shell of bigger pores. Moreover, we identified a correlation between microporosity, average pore radius and moisture expansion. The investigations highlight the fact that moisture expansion cannot only be attributed to swellable clay minerals, and suggest that the presence and accumulation of micropores and their average radius and distribution play an important role for non-clay associated swelling intensity, which can most probably be attributed to the disjoining pressure.

formado principalmente por una secuencia de lavas y flujos piroclásticos con edades que van desde el Eoceno medio hasta el Cuaternario. En general, el Campo Volcánico de San Luis Potosí tuvo cinco etapas principales de vulcanismo. La primera etapa estuvo restringida al Eoceno medio y consistió en la emisión de lavas andesíticas. La segunda etapa fue la más voluminosa y sucedió en el período entre 32 y 28 Ma. En ésta segunda etapa predominó la actividad efusiva que formó cadenas de domos exógenos con composiciones que varían desde dacitas hasta riolitas con contenido alto de sílice. La formación de estos domos fue precedida por erupciones piroclásticas de volumen menor que las lavas. La tercera es una etapa intermitente de vulcanismo félsico que sucedió entre los 28-25 Ma y originó erupciones piroclásticas de la riolita Panalillo. La expulsión de la riolita Panalillo al parecer fue a través de fallas normales, formadas durante la etapa en que la extensión fue más intensa, lo que sucedió en el lapso entre los 28-26 Ma. La expulsión de la riolita Panalillo en algunos complejos estuvo acompañada de basaltos por lo que se interpreta como actividad bimodal. La cuarta etapa de vulcanismo ocurrió entre los 23-21 Ma con erupciones fisurales esporádicas de basaltos a través de fallas, lo cual ocurrió principalmente en la parte sur y sur-poniente de la Sierra de San Miguelito; la última etapa, se asocia a un vulcanismo intraplaca que se traslapó sobre algunos de los complejos volcánicos que conforman el Campo Volcánico de San Luis Potosí durante el Cuaternario, cuyos centros eruptivos generaron rocas de composición basanítica. El vulcanismo del Campo Volcánico de San Luis Potosí está compuesto por una diversidad magmática y multiepisódica, ampliamente asociada a los eventos de la tectónica extensiva de la porción central de México originada principalmente durante el Oligoceno. Los complejos eruptivos, es decir los complejos volcánicos principales que conforman el Campo Volcánico de San Luis Potosí, presentan ciertas diferencias entre sí, pero son correlacionables por sus características petrológicas, las cuales van de acuerdo a sus edades isotópicas. Para este trabajo se seleccionaron seis complejos volcánicos: Ahualulco,

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The old mining city of Guanajuato in middle Mexico preserves one of the most important historical legacies in colonial buildings, the UNESCO declared the city World Heritage Site in 1988. Practically all the colonial constructions were built with natural stones from the neighbourhood, of which stands a greenish to reddish vulcanite, called Loseros Tuff. Although the Loseros Tuff is widely used in historical buildings in the city. It shows significant deterioration and weathering effects, principally in the parts where the tuff shows a coarse grain size. The petrographic, petrophysical, mineralogical and geochemical properties of the Loseros Tuff were analysed in order to determine the causes, effects, behaviour and response to deterioration of this volcanic rock. The results of the investigations suggest that in addition to the parameters like the grain size and the porosity properties, the pore radii distribution is decisive for the effectiveness of porosity and the water transport into the rock. It is recognized that once the liquid water invades the rock the dissolution of the matrix occurs, which is accompanied by a sudden moisture expansion favoured by the newly formed secondary porosity and the high content of expandable clay minerals.

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During the early Maastrichtian an assemblage rich in large foraminifera, mostly composed of orbitoidal foraminifera, developed in the shallow-water deposits of the Cárdenas Formation (Valles-San Luis Potosí Platform, Mexico). Among them, the most abundant is Lepidorbitoides minima, some of which display a morphologically abnormal test consisting of polyvalent forms, conical tests and budding, which could be induced by abrupt changes in environmental factors. The occurrence of the abnormalities preceded the demise of this species and of all the larger foraminiferal association in the upper part of the Gansserina gansseri Zone (early Maastrichtian). The abnormalities could be induced by environmental stress, probably related to interplay of different events such as increased terrigenous input and the transition to deeper facies due to Laramide tectonic instability before the K/P boundary.A late Maastrichtian community of dwarfed planktic foraminifera composed of Trinitella scotti Brönnimann, Plummerita reicheli Brönnimann, Rugoglobigerina cf. macrocephala Brönnimann, Rugoglobigerina hexacamerata Brönnimann, Heterohelix punctulata (Cushman), Pseudoguembelina costulata (Cushman), Pseudotextularia intermedia de Klasz, Globigerinelloides asperus Bolli, Guembelitria cretacea Cushman, Rugoglobigerina rugosa (Plummer), Rugotruncana sp., Globotruncanita stuarti (de Lapparent), and Globotruncana arca (Cushman) developed in the upper part of the sequence. This uncommon morphology could also be related to the highly stressed paleoenvironmental conditions related to global climatic change and local tectonic activity. Associated with this planktic assemblage is a deeper-water dwarfed benthic foraminiferal community composed of Gyroidinoides nitidus (Reuss), Coryphostoma incrassata (Reuss), Pseudouvigerina plummerae Cushman, P. cretacea Cushman, Bolivina cretosa Cushman, Planulina texana Cushman and Cibicides harperi (Sandidge).Keywords: Abnormal foraminifera tests, Lepidorbitoides minima, dwarfed planktic foraminfera, Maastrichtian, Cárdenas Formation, Valles-San Luis Potosí Platform. ResumenDurante el Maastrichtiano temprano una asociación rica en macroforaminíferos compuesta principalmente de formas orbitoidales, se desarrolló en los depósitos de agua somera de la Formación Cárdenas (Plataforma Valles-San Luis Potosí, México

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