Secret of how Roman concrete survived tidal battering for 2,000 years revealed

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Secret of how Roman concrete survived tidal battering for 2,000 years revealed · 3

thenewgreen · 2701 days ago

It is a mystery that continues to baffle modern engineers. Why do 2,000-year-old Roman piers survive to this day, yet modern concrete seawalls embedded with steel crumble within decades?

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katakowsj · 2700 days ago · link ·

Cool discovery. It wasn't mentioned in the article, but I've got to imagine there are potential gains for roadmaking in places like Michigan, where we use salt, as an ice melt for about a third of the year.

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historyarch · 2467 days ago · link ·

Fascinating. Those Romans were pretty impressive. I am always amazed with the ways the ancients made technological advancements. For example, who figured out that mixing tin and copper would create a much stronger metal, bronze? The innovation appears independently in the Middle East, China and the Americas as well so there was more than one inventor. Even the Roman creators of this concrete probably did not realize it would remain intact for so long.

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user-inactivated · 2700 days ago · link ·

i went to the everglades one time, and there was a little plaque explaining how local native american tribes did this too, independently of the romans. i think we were already aware of the how but not the exact mechanism.