Scientists discover the secret of Stonehenge's millennia-long durability

Scientists discover the secret of Stonehenge’s millennia-long durability

Posted on: August 7, 2021
Posted by: Izer Hector
Posted in: science

Mexico City (APRO). A scientific study has suggested that the prehistoric monument located on the Salisbury Plain in England, Stonehenge, may have survived time due to the geochemical composition of the sarcoids columnar stones because they contain grains of quartz.

Analysis showed that sarsen consisted primarily of sand-sized quartz grains that were held tightly by an interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals.

“This explains the stone’s resistance to the elements during the past five thousand years and why it was an ideal material for building such an edifice, according to experts,” explained the study entitled “Petroleum and geochemical characterization of Sarsen stone.” Stonehenge”, published in the magazine PLUS ONE.

“The observation occurs after a sample of the core of a plate is under a microscope. Those large plates of arsenic are also known as sarsenes,” said the study, led by David Nash, a professor at the University of Brighton.

This sample analyzed is from an extraction made more than 60 years ago, from a 3.5-foot-long slab called Philip’s Core, which split into six pieces, one of which, 67 mm (2.6 in) long, was loaned by scientists for study.

El trabajo de conservación de la muestra cilíndrica estrecha lo hizo la firma británica Van Moppes, en 1958. Su ubicación fue un misterio hasta 2018, cuando el difunto Robert Phillips, representante de esta firma, lo devolvió des de Florida, Gran Bresuña United State.

The Daily Mail reports that “Philip Core returned to Britain only two years ago, after being a souvenir in America for decades”.

Philips’Core’s chemical data was used two years ago to show that most of the large sarsenic stones came from 15 miles north, in the West Woods, on the edge of Marlborough Downs, Wiltshire.

Nash was joined by geologists, geomorphologists and archaeologists from institutions as diverse as the British Geological Survey, the English Heritage and the Natural History Museum, who concluded that the new analysis could be used to trace the sources of the remaining stones.

The authors say Philip’s Core is taken from Stonehenge’s Stone 58 which geologically represents 50 of the 52 remaining sarsens in Stonehenge. Now, due to Stonehenge’s protected status, it is impossible to directly extract any samples from the remains at the site,” explained Nash.

His team scanned the rock by tomography, x-rayed it, examined it with different microscopes, and analyzed its sedimentation and chemistry, he said.

He said, “This small sample is probably the most analyzed piece of stone after moon rocks!”

“It is extremely rare, as a scientist, to have the opportunity to work with samples of national and international importance,” he added.

The sarsenes were used to construct the 15 stones that make up the central horseshoe, the buttresses and lintels for the outer circle of Stonehenge, as well as the terminal stones of heel stone, slaughter stone and station stones that weigh 20 tons and reach 7 meters in height.