Civil Engineering Professor Richard Stephenson and Adam Sevi, a graduate student, recently took samples of soil, rock, and water surrounding many of Luxor's ancient, sandstone structures and brought them back to their lab in order to gain a better understanding of why the ancient monuments are deteriorating. The idea is to get a better understanding of the chemical properties of the soil and the water, and the capillary action of the sandstone. The UMR researchers, working with the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics in Egypt, took samples from six archeological sites. The pair already knows that the structures are threatened by irrigation and drainage practices, which have contributed to a rise in the water table and increased salt concentrations in surface soils. But Sevi said the rate of degradation has risen dramatically in recent years.
Capillary action results from the porosity.
Any salts that were in the groundwater would precipitate out during evaporation, causing salt buildup in and on the sandstone blocks. These salt precipitates may be expanding and possibly speeding the degradation by exploding the sandstone from the inside out. The team's research should be completed in November.