rock sawability prediction and determination of effective parameters are important in the cost estimation and the planning of the stone factories. an accurate estimation of rock sawability and performance prediction of sawing machine helps to make the planning of the rock sawing projects more efficient. it is necessary to predict the rock sawability and determine the effective parameters to ach...

Portugal produces a great diversity of ornamental stones. Besides the internationally known white and pink marbles, also light cream limestones are produced, as well as grey, yellow and pink granites, and dark grey slates. A first exercise is presented on the evaluation of the available resources of ornamental stones in the whole Portuguese territory. The results show a total availability of 41...

Increasing environmental pollution in urban areas has been endangering the survival of carbonate stones in monuments and statuary for many decades. Numerous conservation treatments have been applied for the protection and consolidation of these works of art. Most of them, however, either release dangerous gases during curing or show very little efficacy. Bacterially induced carbonate mineraliza...

The ornamental stone production chain deeply changed in the ‘70s and in the following decades, when the mechanization of processes increased the production and the safety of workers. Nevertheless, the new techniques are also responsible of not negligible environmental impacts. This paper is focused on the currently most diffused techniques of extraction, cutting and polishing of the Italian sto...

BACKGROUND Biomineralization processes have recently been applied in situ to protect and consolidate decayed ornamental stone of the Royal Chapel in Granada (Spain). While this promising method has demonstrated its efficacy regarding strengthening of the stone, little is known about its ecological sustainability. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, we report molecular monitoring of the stone...