Durability assessment of the basalts used in the Diyarbakr City Walls, Turkey

Date

2019-08-01

Author

Dursun, Felat
Topal, Tamer

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

253
views

0
downloads

The Diyarbakr City Walls (DCW), which were recently added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, are among the largest and one of the most impressive monuments from ancient times. The history of the DCW stretches back more than 4000 years, therefore making the extant City Walls a combination and reflection of influences of the various civilizations that settled in the region. Basalts having such different textural properties as massive and vesicular were employed as the principal material in the construction of the DCW. Like many other historical structures, the DCW are suffering from stone deterioration. A large variety of weathering forms can be observed on the basalts used in different sections of the DCW. The behavior of the basalt under different cyclic environmental conditions is not known. In this study, deterioration mechanisms of the basalts were investigated with field and laboratory studies. It is found that iddingsite is a common weathering product developed through the crystal boundaries of olivine. Accelerated weathering tests show that salt crystallization is the most effective deterioration mechanism. The field and laboratory studies indicate that both massive and vesicular basalts are durable; however, the massive basalts are more durable than the vesicular ones. It is also observed that although chemical processes slightly trigger the deterioration mechanisms of the rocks, most of the weathering forms on the DCW are controlled by the physical factors affecting the parameters of the basalts such as porosity, water absorption and uniaxial compressive strength.

Subject Keywords

Earth-Surface Processes, Soil Science, Global and Planetary Change, Geology, Pollution, Water Science and Technology, Environmental Chemistry

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/42802

Journal

ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH SCIENCES

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8466-y

Collections

Department of Geological Engineering, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Investigation on deterioration mechanisms on the basalts used in the Diyarbakır city walls Dursun, Felat; Topal, Tamer; Department of Geological Engineering (2017) The Diyarbakır City Walls (DCW), which were recently added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, are among the largest and most impressive monuments from ancient times. Basalts having such different textural properties as massive and vesicular were employed as the principal material in the construction of the DCW. Like many other historical structures, the DCW are suffering from stone deterioration. A large variety of weathering forms can be observed on the basalts used in different sections of the DCW. This dis...
REVERSE-ENGINEERING EVALUATION AND MONITORING OF NEMRUT MONUMENTS Türer, Ahmet; Şahin Güçhan, Neriman (2012-01-01) The focus of this study is on the Nemrut Dag monuments, which were constructed approximately 2000 years ago at the peak of Mount Nemrut, 2206 meters elevation, are among the most valuable historical heritage sites in Turkey. Since the discovery of Nemrut monuments in 1881, many questions are unresolved, such as how the monuments were destroyed and why the damage level is very different between the symmetric east and west terraces. Natural causes, such as earthquakes, snow, or wind or manmade damages in the ...
Remediation of the geotechnical problems of the Hasankeyf historical area, southeastern Turkey Akgün, Haluk (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2003-08-01) The castle, palaces and man-made historical and recent cave dwellings of Hasankeyf will be partly flooded by the reservoir of the Ilisu dam which is planned to be constructed over the Tigris River. Hasankeyf is entirely within the Germik formation which is composed of whitish to light gray and/or beige, medium strong, fresh to slightly weathered, thick to very thick bedded, locally massive, almost horizontal or gently dipping silty, sandy limestone. The major geotechnical concerns in the area consist of the...
Seismic evaluation and strengthening of nemrut monuments Aktas, Yasemin Didem; Türer, Ahmet (2015-05-01) Nemrut Dag Tumulus and Monuments, constructed during the Commagenian Kingdom approximately 2000 years ago on the peak of Mount Nemrut, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Turkey. The region is about 5 km away from the East Anatolian Fault, therefore, this paper focuses on dynamic testing and earthquake simulations carried out within the framework of the Commagene Nemrut Conservation Development Program in order to explain monuments' current condition. The simulations showed vulnerability of cut-stone blocks ...
Effect of Salt Crystallization on Microfracture Properties of the Basalts Used in Diyarbakir City Walls, Turkey Dursun, Felat; Topal, Tamer (null; 2018-10-08) The Diyarbakır City Walls, which were recently added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, are among the most impressive surviving structures from ancient times. Basalt is the principal construction material employed in the City Walls. Like many other historical structures, the Diyarbakır City Walls are also suffering from stone deterioration. It is known that weathering is strongly related to the type, amount, dimension, orientation and density of cracks. The extending of cracks, for instance, increases stone's...

Citation Formats

F. Dursun and T. Topal, “Durability assessment of the basalts used in the Diyarbakr City Walls, Turkey,” ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH SCIENCES, pp. 0–0, 2019, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/42802.