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Piperno from Campi Flegrei: a relevant stone in the historical and monumental heritage of Naples (Italy)

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

This paper reports novel data concerning the volcanic formation of the Piperno, a stone that has been used for a long time in the monumental architecture of Naples and the Campanian region (Southern Italy). A careful field survey of the outcrops or underground sites so far accessible allowed us to draw a lithostratigraphic reconstruction of the formation and enabled the recognition of the three main layers exploited in past centuries and which provided dimension stones for architectural and structural purposes. Petrophysical and mineralogical characterization also enabled us to discriminate the same layers previously identified. Different scoriae/matrix ratio, scoriae dimension and welding degree are the most peculiar features of these horizons. The combination of these three parameters, even though they did not affect the use of Piperno as dimension stone, somehow determined its variable susceptibility to the weathering agents. However, a linear relationship between the exposure time and the decay of the stone itself, at a parity of weathering intensity, was not observed. This assumption was proved by verifying that the specific layers of the volcanic sequence controlled the weathering degree of Piperno from monuments disregarding their age of emplacement.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to L. Melluso and V. Morra (CISAG/Dipartimento Scienze della Terra – Università FEDERICO II) for providing XRF data on the Piperno (G. Ricci – unpublished Ph.D. thesis). Work carried out with the financial support of the CO.FIN. 2003 granted to M. de’Gennaro and within the scientific activities of the Centro di Competenza “INNOVA” – Dimostratore Campi Flegrei.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Geotecnica, Università Federico II, Piazzale V. Tecchio 80, , Naples, Italy

    Domenico Calcaterra

  2. Dipartimento di Studi Geologici ed Ambientali, Università del Sannio, via Port’Arsa 11, Benevento, Italy

    Alessio Langella

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università Federico II, Via Mezzocannone 8, Naples, Italy

    Roberto de Gennaro, Maurizio de’ Gennaro & Piergiulio Cappelletti

Authors
  1. Domenico Calcaterra
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  2. Alessio Langella
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  3. Roberto de Gennaro
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  4. Maurizio de’ Gennaro
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  5. Piergiulio Cappelletti
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Correspondence to Domenico Calcaterra.

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Calcaterra, D., Langella, A., de Gennaro, R. et al. Piperno from Campi Flegrei: a relevant stone in the historical and monumental heritage of Naples (Italy). Env Geol 47, 341–352 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-004-1156-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-004-1156-3

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