Marble recession

Youngdahl, C. A. Doe, B. R. Sherwood, S. I. Roughening Recession and Chemical Alteration of Marble and Limestone Sample Surfaces After Atmospheric Exposure in the Northeastern United States. In this book. 

Table I. Rainfall quantity and pH, recession for a marble reference antecedent sulfur dioxide, net sulfate, rock at Research Triangle Park, North, hydrogen ion loading, and surfact Carolina, June to October 1984 ...

The situation differs for large rain amounts. For large rain amounts, excess sulfate values for limestone exceed excess sulfate values for small rain amounts. Large-excess sulfate values for a large-rain-amount for limestone are associated with twice the surface recession of a marble sample for the same event. Some of this surface loss may be the result of the removal of a calcium sulfate mineral. 

Marble-surface recession at the North Carolina site was correlated with rainfall amount. The correlation coefficent was significant at greater than the 99-percent confidence level. Marble-surface recession also was correlated with hydrogen ion deposition to the rock. The linear relation between surface recession and hydrogen ion deposition was found to be ... 

Tables III and IV show results obtained for marble returned from NY and DC after exposures of less than one year. (The early returns were required owing to difficulties with baseline data previously taken.) Average values of recession are somewhat higher than might be expected on a time basis, when compared with annual results from NC and NJ but the comparison will be more meaningful after correlation with environmental and rainfall factors is available. Again, dimensional instability was an interfering factor for marble from location M in the source block (compare specimen numbers containing an "M" in Tables II and III).

Table III. Marble Surface Recession and Roughness after Three Months ...

Osteopetrosis, also known as marble bone disease, describes a group of heritable disorders that are centered on a defect in osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. There are four autosomal recessive and one autosomal dominant forms of osteopetrosis (Table 35.4) (16). It generally is characterized by abnormally dense, brittle bone and increased skeletal mass. Unlike osteoporosis, this disorder results from decreased osteoclast activity, which has an effect on both the shape and structure of the bone. In very extreme cases, the medullary cavity, which houses bone marrow, fills with new bone, and production of hematopoietic cells is hampered. Like osteoporosis, this disease can be detected radiographically and appears as though there is a bone within a bone. There is limited evidence that bisphosphonates can induce osteopetrosis via their inhibition of osteoclast activity (17). 

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