Development of new techniques to understand marble quality and durability

Marbles from Macael at the Alhambra. Click here for more information.

The international commerce of ornamental stones has grown all over the world in the last years, revealing a decided solid support to the aesthetics of natural stones in buildings construction and urban ornamentation.

Marble is, undoubtedly, the ornamental stone par excellence. All through history, numerous civilizations have architectural or sculptural works which constitute the most important pieces of their historic heritage. Despite this, nowadays we have a very limited understanding about the intrinsic features which affect marble durability/changeability.

This fact is paradoxical in countries such as Spain, with a rich historic heritage in marble and one of the most important producing and exporting countries at a worldwide scale of this type of ornamental stone.

Researchers of the University of Granada, led by Prof Eduardo Sebastián Pardo, and of the University of Gotinguen (Germany), led by Prof Siegfried Siegesmund, collaborate in a project to explain the causes for marble physical decay and design new identification and conservation methods.

The study, says Prof Sebastián, permits to "dictate recommendations referred to the specific use of ornamental marble, when they are used in buildings’ external coatings and other constructive functions". Selection criteria are based on stone intrinsic features. Therefore, the analysis deals with an exhaustive characterization of materials, their petrography and their physical properties.

Studied marbles