Marble dissolution by acid rain

Reddy, M. M. Sherwood, S. I. Limestone and Marble Dissolution by Acid Rain. In this book. 

Reddy, M. Sherwood, S. Doe, B. "Limestone and Marble Dissolution by Acid Rain" to be sumitted to Proc. 5th Int. Cong, on Deterioration and Conservation of Stone, Lausanne, Switzerland, Sept. 1985. 

Dissolution by Acid Rain. The dissolution of limestone and marble by acid rain may be written as ... 

The dissolution of carbonates by acid is an undesired result of acid rain, which has damaged the appearance of many historic marble and limestone monuments (Fig. 11.19 marble and limestone are forms of calcium carbonate). 

FIGURE 44 Weathering. A weathered sandstone column. Calcite (composed of calcium carbonate) is dissolved by rain and groundwater (see Textbox 73). When stone in which calcite is a main component as, for example, sandstone, limestone, and marble, is in contact with water for long periods of time, it is weathered and partly or entirely dissolved. Pollutants such as sulfur dioxide are fundamental in accelerating the weathering and dissolution process. When sulfur dioxide, for example, dissolves in rainwater, it forms sulfuric acid, a strong acid that, at ambient temperatures, rapidly dissolves calcium carbonate. 

---