ARTICLE IN PRESS

Building and Environment 42 (2007) 1453–1457

www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv

Effect of salt crystallization on stones of historical buildings

and monuments, Konya, Central Turkey
Veysel Zedefa,, Kerim Kocakb, Adnan Doyenb, Hakan Ozsena, Bilgehan Kekeca
a
Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Selcuk University, 42079 Konya, Turkey
b
Department of Geology, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Selcuk University, 42079 Konya, Turkey
Received 15 July 2005; received in revised form 2 December 2005; accepted 5 December 2005

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the chemical and physical properties of the volcanic rocks used as building stones in historical places and
monuments. The chemical weathering effect of salt crystallization on these stones was measured on the laboratory conditions (in most
cases, used samples were very small). For this purpose, the dry weight loss (DWL) test was conducted. The rocks of dacite, andesite and
tuffs of volcanic origin have different durability against salt crystallization. The most stable rocks are dacites (DWL 2.06%) which were
used in the construction of Hittite monuments at Eflatun. The durability of the stones is closely related to their chemical, mineralogical,
petrographical and mechanical properties. The stones used in the historical buildings are generally much more stable than present-day
building stones.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Chemical and physical properties; Dacite-andesite; Building stones; Monuments; Konya; Turkey

1. Introduction building and monumental stones [3]. Microbial activity

As a result of increasing population and industrialization
in recent decades, Turkey has faced to several environmental
pollution problems. The pollution is especially noteworthy in
crops, trees and soil profile [1,2]. The pollution is also
effective on building stones used in either present day
constructions or historical buildings and monuments. In
central Turkey, the stones of volcanic origin (andesites and
dacites) are especially used as stones since this part of the
country extensively covered by volcanic rocks.
As well as present-day constructions, the volcanic rocks
have largely been used as building stones in historical
buildings and monuments. Chemical characteristics and
physical properties of these stones are strictly depends on
their formation processes. The major and minor character-
istics of the rocks are later altered by secondary processes,
namely weathering. During the weathering, dissolved CO2,
SO2, SO3 and Cl are the most effective corrodents for the
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 332 223 20 46;
fax: +90 332 241 06 35.
E-mail address: vzedef@selcuk.edu.tr (V. Zedef).
further helps the degradation of the stones [4,5]. Clay
minerals, such as illite-smectite, kaolinite and chlorite are
the main product of alteration [6].
City of Konya (Central Turkey) has many historical
buildings used as mosques and medresse (Islamic theolo-
gical schools) belonging to Selcuk and Ottoman civilisa-
tions. The most distinctive mosques are Alaaddin (built in
1221 by Allaaddin Keykubad I), Selimiye (built in 1587 by
Yavuz Sultan Selim) and Aziziye (built in 1676 by Sultan
Mehmet IV). The Karatay and Ince Minare Medresse
(both built by Izzettin Keykavus II, in 1251 and 1279,
respectively) are the most famous theological schools. The
monument sited at Eflatun, 80 km west of Konya, also built
with dacite stones by Hittites in 1283 BC. Nowadays, many
of these historical places are under restoration. For
example, the restoration works are still ongoing in the
Allaaddin Mosque, Selimiye Mosque and Ince Minare
Medresse at the city centre of Konya as well as the Hittite
monument at Eflatun.
For the sake of preserving the originality of the historical
buildings and monuments, in most cases, we collected very
small samples to use them for laboratory testes.

0360-1323/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.12.010
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1454 V. Zedef et al. / Building and Environment 42 (2007) 1453–1457
Thus, it is very important to understand the basic
parameters of the Sille andesites and Karakaya dacites,
especially their response to salt weathering which related to
the environmental pollution as this phenomenon often tie
to the salt crystallization. In this paper, we aim to present
the main mineralogical, petrographical, chemical and
technical properties of dacites and andesites outcropped
at Karakaya and Sille, respectively. The effect of salt
crystallization on the strength of these rocks would give an
idea about the preservation of the historical buildings and
monuments.
1.1. Location and geology
The Sille andesites, a Miocene volcanic rock cropping
out on the north-western side of Konya (Fig. 1), is
probably the most important building stone of Konya,
used over a time span from at least the Byzantium age until
the Present-day. Despite its wide use in the historical
buildings of Konya, very little is known about this rock as
regarding its chemical, technical and in some cases
geological features. These andesites, from quarries at Sille,
close to City of Konya (Central Turkey) have been largely
used in building and reparations in the mosques and
medresse of Konya and other buildings of the cultural
heritage in this city. The texture is overwhelmingly
porfiritic. The main minerals observed are quartz (% 20),
feldspars (60%) and vitreous glass (20%). Some biotite,
pyroxene, chlorite can be seen with some opaque minerals.
Open dacite quarries at Karakaya, approximately 90 km
northwest of Konya (Fig. 1), found within the Karakaya
volcanic complex which comprises dacite, dacite dikes and
pyroclastic rocks. These rocks cover an area of about
2.5 km2 at the hills of Karakaya, Findire and Kometepe
which were located in the south of Selki Town [7]. This
Karakaya
Eflatun
Sille
KONYA
Kiziloren
Bekdemir
Black Sea
N
KONYA
0 50 km
Meditarrenean Sea
Fig. 1. Location of studied dacite and andesite quarries (Karakaya and
Sille), historical buildings (Konya), caravansaries (Kiziloren) and Hittite
monuments (Eflatun).
dacites evolved under hydrous conditions at shallow levels
in the continental crust, and probably derived from an
andesitic parental magma via fractional crystallisation
which was probably taken place during the Miocene [8].
Fresh samples representing the parent rock typically show
hypocrystalline porfiritic texture. Microscopic examina-
tions show that the dacites have approximately 20%
quartz, 50% feldspars (mainly plagioclase as microlites)
and 30% vitric groundmass. Biotite, pyroxene, hornblende
and olivine crystals can be observed in different dimensions
within the groundmass. Feldspars, sometimes enclosed tiny
leumontite crystals, are generally resorbed indicating
magmatic corrosion. These stones were probably used in
the Hittite monument at Eflatun, 90 km west of Konya city
(Fig. 1).
There has been three caravansary (a kind of hostel) close
to small town of Kiziloren (Fig. 1). These caravansaries
served for passengers from the medieval ages (1200 AD) to
recent times (until 1920s). The main stones used in these
caravansaries are tuffs with lesser amounts of dacites,
andesites, limestones and conglomerates. These historical
building are out of service now and they are seemingly
restored from time to time. We examined the rock type of
tuffs of this construction as the tuffs are the most used
stones. The tuffs are volcanic rocks with feldspars, quartz
and vitreous glass as groundmass. The main visual
differences of this rock from dacites and andesites are its
texture and the huge dimension of rock forming particles.
The texture is perlitic and the particles are up to 3 cm long
and width. The cement in between the particles is relatively
soft with respect to dacites and andesites. The most
weathered stones are seems to be these tuffs on the ruins
of the walls of the caravansaries.
The weathered samples collected from rock surfaces of
Karakaya dacites are pale grey-pale brown whilst the fresh
samples are greyish and in some cases dark-grey. On the
other hand, the fresh samples of Sille andesites are pinkish
while the altered samples are yellowish. According to the
New Zealand Geomechanics Society Standards (1998), the
weathered volcanic rocks derived from Sille and Karakaya
volcanites can be classified as slightly weathered since these
rocks are discoloured in discontinuity surfaces. On these
surfaces, there have been some loos rock particles. We
examined these rocks in terms of strength to salt crystal-
lization under the laboratory conditions as well as
mineralogical, chemical and physical aspects.
2. The sampling and analyses
For whole rock major element compositions, seven
samples from fresh rocks and five samples from weathered
rocks were collected in order to compare their chemical
compositions and loss on ignition (LOI) values. Additional
three samples were collected from fresh rocks to ensure
the mineralogical compounds of the samples from Kar-
akaya and Sille. Behaviour against salt crystallization,
density, water absorption, texture (where available) and
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V. Zedef et al. / Building and Environment 42 (2007) 1453–1457 1455

mineralogical ingredients are determined on 16 samples in
total. The sampling of fresh rocks was done in the quarries
of Karakaya, Sille, and ruins of caravansary at Kiziloren
while the weathered samples were undertaken on the loos
part of the rocks.
The whole rock major element analyses were performed
using XRF (Philips-PW-1660). For mineral identification,
X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical microscopy were
employed. LOI of the samples was measured at 1000 1C.
The quantification of salt weathering of the samples was
measured by assessing the dry weight loss (DWL) of the
rocks. There have been many laboratory test proposed for
DWL determinations. The most used tests are the American
standard test ASTM (C-88, C-128), the Germany standard
test DIN (52111) and the Spanish standard test UNE-EN
(12370). All these test have three stages: immersion (total),
drying and cooling. We followed the Spanish standard test
for DWL assessments. In this test, the samples were 7 cm
cubes and a 14% w/w Na2SO4 solution was used. In the
immersion stage, clean and dry rock samples were
introduced into a container and covered with the solution
at 20 1C for 4 h. In the drying stage, the samples were taken
out of the container and settled into the heating cabinet at
60 1C for 16 h. The duration of this cycle is 24 h and the
similar procedure was repeated for 15 days (total 15 cycles).
The solution was changed every five cycles as the samples
lose weight. After 15 days, the tested samples were cleaned
with pure water to eliminate salt. The samples were then
dried until a constant weight realized. The dry weight loss
(DWL %) was calculated at the end of this stage.
3. Results
Rock type, mineral constituents, texture, density, water
absorption rate and origin of the samples are summarized
in Table 1. Fresh samples of Karakaya dacites and Sille
andesites typically display porfiritic texture. As mentioned
above, they are composed mainly of feldspars, quartz and
vitric groundmass, these observations are also supported
by XRD analyses. The tuffs have perlitic texture. In
addition to feldspars, quartz and vitric groundmass, the
weathered samples and tuffs also have clay minerals. The
tuffs include tosudite as clay minerals while the weathered
samples have illite and zinwaldite. The determination of
texture of the weathered samples was not possible as these
rocks are in the form of free particles (collected from rock
surfaces). The density of the fresh rocks is between 2.04
and 2.36, while these values are between 1.23 and 1.45 for
weathered samples and tuffs. The water absorption rate of
the fresh samples is between 3.14 and 12.19. The lowest
water absorption rate (2.51%) is recorded in the fresh
samples of Sille andesites. On the other hand, the highest
water absorption value (19.73%) measured in the tuffs. In
general, the fresh samples have lower water absorption
rates compared to weathered samples and tuffs.
Whole rock major element data are displayed in Table 2.
With the exception of the FeO of the tuffs (T-1 and T-2),
the SiO2, FeO and Al2O3 contents of the samples are
relatively uniform. The CaO content of the fresh samples of
dacites and andesites are between 4.74% and 5.51%, while
these values are between 2.86% and 3.72% for weathered
samples. The two samples of tuffs, T-1 and T-2, have
2.50% and 3.90% of CaO, respectively. The maximum and
minimum K2O value of the fresh samples is 4.65% (T-1)
and 3.75% (AD-2), respectively. The weathered samples
have 3.00% of K2O on average, while the average Na2O
content of these samples is 2.24%. The Na2O contents of
the fresh samples are between 2.99% and 4.21%. Except
the tuff samples, the LOI values of the fresh rocks are
lower than one. The LOI values of the weathered samples
are between 1.65% and 4.20%. The highest LOI values are
recorded for T-1 (5.14%) and T-2 (4.75%).

Table 1
Rock type of the samples and their some petrographic and physical properties

Sample Rock type Minerals Texture Density (gr/cm3) Water absorption (%) Origin

AD-1 Dacite An, Q, Au Porfiritic 2.04 11.37 Karakaya

AD-2 Andesite Ano, Au, S, Q Porfiritic 2.16 3.14 Sille
AD-3 Dacite An, Q, A Porfiritic 2.11 9.38 Karakaya
AD-4 Dacite An, Q Porfiritic 2.36 5.76 Karakaya
AD-5 Dacite An, A, Q Porfiritic 2.29 6.17 Karakaya
AD-6 Andesite Sa, A, Q Porfiritic 2.20 2.34 Sille
AD-7 Dasite An, Au, S, Q Porfiritic 2.09 10.18 Karakaya
AD-8 Andesite A, S, Q Porfiritic 2.16 12.19 Sille
WAD-1 Dacite S, I n.a. 1.23 12.67 Karakaya
WAD-2 Dacite Sa, Au, I n.a. 1.55 15.19 Karakaya
WAD-3 Andesite A, Au, Z n.a. 1.45 13.89 Sille
WAD-4 Andesite Sa, Au, I n.a. 1.30 12.51 Sille
WAD-5 Dacite An, A, I n.a. 1.33 8.66 Karakaya
T-1 Tuff A, Q, T Perlitic 1.34 19.73 Kiziloren
T-2 Tuff A, An, Q, T Perlitic 1.26 18.34 Kiziloren
T-3 Tuff A, Q, T Perlitic 1.32 19.23 Kiziloren

Note: An, Anortite; Q, Quartz; Au, Augite; Ano, Anortoclase; S, Sanidine; A, Albite; Sa, Sodic anortite; I, Illite; Z, Zinwaldite; T, Tosudite; n.a., not
available.
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1456 V. Zedef et al. / Building and Environment 42 (2007) 1453–1457

The dry weight loss data of the samples are shown in Marked decreases of CaO and MgO from fresh to
Table 3. The tuff samples (T-1, T-2 and T-3) are completely weathered samples indicate high mobility of Ca and Mg
destroyed in the fifth day of the test. DWL measurements elements. According to Moon and Jayawardane[9] lessen-
are not possible for weathered samples as they collected ing amount of CaO and MgO as well as FeO indicates loss
from the rocks surfaces (the used DWL test, Spanish of strength of the rocks. The weathered rocks of Karakaya
Standard Test, needs cubic rocks, 7  7  7 cm). The lowest dacites and Sille andesites have lower Na2O compared to
DWL was measured in Karakaya dacites (AD-5, 2.06%) fresh rocks. This suggests that the Na is also mobile during
while the highest one measured in the Sille andesites (AD-8, weathering. Duzgoren-Aydin et al. [10] reported that as the
35.77%). intensity of weathering increases Ca, Na and K decrease
whereas LOI increases. In general the LOI values of
weathered rocks of dacites and andesites are higher than
4. Discussion and conclusions that of fresh rocks. This may be due to high absorption rate
of the weathered rocks. The highest LOI values are seen in
Exception of FeO contents of T-1 and T-2 samples the tuff samples this may be due to the presence of loos
(tuffs), the overall SiO2, FeO and Al2O3 contents of the texture (perlitic) in these rocks. These tuffs are also having
fresh and weathered samples are very similar indicating soft cement between the particles. Density of the fresh
immobility of these oxides during weathering processes of rocks is higher than that of weathered samples indicating
the fresh rocks. In other words these oxides are much more higher durability of the fresh rocks.
resistant to alteration effects. FeO may be accounted as In the weathered rocks of Karakaya dacites and Sille
mobile for the stones of tuffs, or it can also be interpreted andesites, some clay minerals (illite and zinwaldite, see
the lower FeO content of parental magma which the tuffs Table 1) were observed. One of the main indicators of the
derived. weathering is the appearance of clay minerals in different
variety, amount and type [6,10,11]. The presence of
tosudite minerals in the tuffs of Kiziloren Caravansary
Table 2
Whole rock major element compositions (in weight %) of fresh and may be due to the hydrothermal alteration effect at the
weathered samples cooling stages of the hot lavas.
According to [12], salt crystallization is the most
SiO2 FeO Al2O3 CaO MgO K2O Na2O LOI (%)
powerful weathering agent for rocks. The rocks lose weight
Fresh samples as due to harmful effect of salt which also causes visible
AD-1 62.62 4.21 15.91 5.00 2.35 4.47 3.28 0.76 surface deterioration. During salt crystallization pressure
AD-2 64.10 4.11 16.08 5.05 2.43 3.75 4.21 0.65 crystallization occurs within the pores of rocks, and degree
AD-3 64.20 4.19 16.09 4.94 2.27 4.15 3.76 0.68 of weathering is depends on the degree of salt saturation of
AD-4 66.44 4.47 15.13 4.74 3.35 3.99 2.99 0.64
AD-5 61.96 4.73 16.15 5.51 2.72 4.09 3.09 0.16
the solution and the pore size [13]. The tuffs of Kiziloren
T-1 68.76 1.81 14.39 2.50 0.20 3.95 4.18 5.14 caravansary are completely destroyed after five days of the
T-2 66.21 1.55 14.81 3.90 1.10 4.65 3.82 4.75 DWL test. Thus, it can be concluded that the weakest stone
Weathered samples
against salt crystallization is the tuffs. The most durable
WAD-1 63.90 4.56 16.47 3.19 0.35 3.48 2.06 4.20 stones for salt crystallization are the Karakaya dacites
WAD-2 66.98 4.25 16.20 3.72 0.82 3.48 2.86 1.65 which were probably used by Hittite to construct monu-
WAD-3 64.93 4.95 17.40 2.86 0.40 3.59 1.84 3.90 ment at Eflatun.
WAD-4 65.22 4.73 16.77 3.18 0.67 3.60 2.25 2.62 The stability of the stones against weathering and salt
WAD-5 62.09 4.16 16.38 3.45 0.55 3.50 2.18 3.18
crystallization is strongly depends on their chemistry and
 As total iron. physical-mineralogical-petrographical properties.

Table 3
Dry weight loss (%) data from the total immersion test

Sample DWL(Dry weight loss), % Place of using as stones

AD-1 18.03 Present-day building stones and covering

AD-2 8.70 Some historical mosques
AD-3 24.29 Present-day building stones and covering
AD-4 3.49 Used in Hittite monuments
AD-5 2.06 Used in Hittite monuments
AD-6 28.65 Present-day building stones and covering
AD-7 25.48 Present-day building stones and covering
AD-8 35.77 Present-day building stones and covering
T-1 Completely destroyed Caravansary
T-2 Completely destroyed Caravansary
T-3 Completely destroyed Caravansary
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V. Zedef et al. / Building and Environment 42 (2007) 1453–1457
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the Office of
Scientific Research (Bu calısma Selc- uk Üniversitesi Bilim-
sel Aras- tırma Projeleri tarafından desteklenmis- tir. BAP;
Project number: 2003/121; Selcuk university; Turkey). We
thank F. fukuchi (language lab; Tokyo) for English
correction. We also thank the unanimous referee(s) for
the building and environment.
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