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 Head To Head The Modern Antiquarian Ballochmyle Walls Forum | Start a topic | Search |
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| On the subject of how to prevent erosion due to environmental conditions, I think that in most cases, acid rain has to be up there as the chief perpetrator. As FW points out above, increased industrialisation has accelerated erosion. I can't help but suspect that the pH of the water falling from the sky is not the chief culprit, rather that it is the nearness of roads, and the attendant decrease in pH resulting from exhaust fumes. This effect is really pronounced in some of the old sandstone walls around my way, where the tops are still fairly pristine, but the bottoms, nearest to exhaust height, are vanishing at a rate that seems to increase each year. It's quite possible that acidity of rain plays a significant part too. For instance I've noticed that in Northumberland, the rock art nearest the coastal plain seems to have suffered most. This could be partly due to the heavier road traffic, not to mention farming exhaust, but I reckon that another major factor was the pesence of powerstations, especially the one that served an aluminium works (Vast amounts of electricity are required for aluminium production). The winds tend to blow inland, collecting sulphate ions from power station discharge as they pass the coastline, them depositing this acidity on the first high ground they come to, i.e. the hills where the RA is. I've suspected that horizontal panels suffer more, as the rain lies in pools, dissolving the rock, for longer periods than it does on vertical surfaces. But after seeing those pics of Ballochmyle, I'm not so sure that RA on vertical surfaces is any better off :( Ballochmyle is close to the road though is it not? So the car fumes culd be the thing causing most damage. Either way, it's likely to be the pH of the water on the surface that causes most of the erosion. As to what to do to try and combat this,the only thing I've thought would be effective would be to make a barrier on the surface of the stone. But this just wouldn't feel right. I mean, a coat of yacht varnish on a prehistoric carving? Eurgh! It's not really much more satisfactory than a perspex cover. P.S. Cheers for the tip about the light GW Reply | with quote |  23rd June 2005ce 21:31 In reply to: Re: We need to save this site... (rocknicker) |
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