Fabric, porosity and water permeability of calcarenites from Apulia (SE Italy) used as building and ornamental stone

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the properties influencing the performance of Apulian calcarenites as past and present building and ornamental stone. A comparison of qualitative fabric observations in petrographic thin sections and quantitative measurements of physical properties, including porosity, pore size distribution and permeability, is discussed. The results suggest that the mercury intrusion porosimetry data and qualitative fabric analysis related to pore size distribution are the most critical observations regarding the potential for the stone to take in and hold water and hence to weather.Résumé Le but de cette étude était a été de déterminer les propriétés des calcarénites de l'Apulie, favorables à leur utilisation comme pierres de construction et pierres ornementales. Des observations qualitatives de la texture à partir de lames minces et des mesures quantitatives de propriétés physiques, incluant porosité, courbe porosimétrique et perméabilité, sont comparées et discutées. Les résultats suggèrent que les données issues de la porosimétrie au mercure et de l'analyse quantitative de la texture en rapport avec la courbe porosimétrique du matériau constituent les paramètres les plus adéquats permettant de caractériser l'aptitude de ces matériaux à absorber et retenir l'eau et donc leur altérabilité.

Stone weathering under Mediterranean semiarid climate in the fortress of Nueva Tabarca island (Spain)

“…(Italy) [1]; Apulia calcarenite in SE Italy [2]; Ksour Essaf limestone in Tunisia [3]; Globigerina limestone in Malta [4]; Marés stone and Santanyí stone in Mallorca (Spain) [5][6]; and San Julián stone and Bateig stone in Alicante (Spain) [7]. In this framework, the unfinished baroque fortress of Nueva Tabarca island (SE of Spain), and the local calcarenite used for its construction, constitutes an exemplary study case.…”

“…The type and rate of weathering of stones depend somewhat on the geographical building location and on the stone location within the architectural structure [10]. However, stone decay resistance is mainly due to their hydro-mechanic properties in terms of water absorption, capillarity or mechanical strength [2], which are dependent, in turn, on the porous system of the rock.…”

Cryptokarst: A Case-Study of the Quaternary Landforms of Southern Apulia (Southern Italy)

“…The calcarenites are formed by whole shells or fragments of marine organisms, lithoclasts of Meso-Cenozoic limestones and biochemical carbonate sedimentation products (Iannone & Pieri, 1979). The calcarenites are composed mostly of carbonate (>95%) with an insoluble residue consisting mainly of clay minerals (kaolinite, illite, chlorite, smectite and halloysite) and negligible quartz, felspars, gibbsite, goethite (Andriani & Walsh, 2003). The laboratory tests assess that porosity ranges between 40% and 47% and the hydraulic conductivity (K) is about 6x10 -5 -7x10 -5 m/s for the coarse calcarenite and it is 3x10 -5 m/s for the medium calcarenite (Andriani & Walsh, 2003).…”

Calibration of a New Device to Measure Water Content of Rocks

“…The calcarenite's composition mostly consists of calcium carbonate (>95%) with an insoluble residue characterized mainly by clay minerals. Previous laboratory tests assessed that porosity ranges between 40% and 47% and the hydraulic conductivity (K) is about 6÷7x10 -5 m/s for the coarse calcarenite and 3x10 -5 m/s for the medium calcarenite [36][37][38]. The calcarenites are diffused in Apulia Region and frequently constitute part of the vadose zone or form significant porous aquifers in the region, playing an important role in drinking supply.…”