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Geological History
Published in F.G.H. Blyth, M. H. de Freitas, A Geology for Engineers, 2017
F.G.H. Blyth, M. H. de Freitas
Granites were intruded into the root of the mountain chain, those of S.W. England, Brittany and Saxony being examples. Further north basic igneous rocks were intruded at higher levels in the crust forming sills and dykes of dolerite: the Whin Sill, which underlies much of northern England, is of this age. Igenous activity reached the surface in Scotland where many volcanoes were pouring forth basalt lavas and ash in the Midland Valley of Scotland, including the basalts of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh.
Mortar and Concrete: Precursors to Modern Materials
Published in International Journal of Architectural Heritage, 2023
However, perhaps the most significant Roman construction in Britain is Hadrian’s Wall (122–130 CE) (Figure 6), a stone and concrete wall which reached up to 4 m tall and stretched 120 km from the Solway Firth to Tyne and included 16 forts — each housing 500 to 800 men — 80 smaller forts, or ‘milecastles’, and 158 towers (Mallinson and Davies 1987; Stanley 1979). In places, the wall was built with the ‘opus incertum’ technique, with stone facing and a core of lime concrete or clay. Cores of the infill concrete were taken by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and were found to contain large, irregular stone aggregate (local sandstone and igneous rock from the Whin Sill) up to 30 cm across. Several fragments of fired clay products were identified in this particular sample of mortar. However, the quantity was not thought to be sufficient to produce a significant pozzolanic effect. Despite this, the sample contained abundant C-S-H but no significant carbonation, suggesting the formation of C-S-H was the main setting mechanism. However, this was most likely a product of a reaction between the lime and chert present in the coarse aggregate (Mallinson and Davies 1987).
The tabular Strathbogie batholith in central Victoria
Published in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2022
G. N. Phillips, A. F. M. Kisters, J. D. Clemens
Many of these examples, both in alpine settings and from mining operations, demonstrate a step-and-stair geometry, as described previously for the mafic Whin Sill of northern England (Francis, 1982; Goulty, 2005). The open pit at Marvel Loch in Western Australia is particularly interesting because three moderately dipping pegmatite dykes, each several metres thick, are exposed in the pit walls and underground, and these show step-and-stair features with orthogonal deflections on a scale of a few metres (Powell & Phillips, 2017, figure 2c).