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Thirty years of erosion and declining atmospheric pollution at St Paul's Cathedral, London

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 13:37 authored by R J Inkpen, H A Viles, C Moses, B Baily, P Collier, S T Trudgill, R U Cooke
The relationship between limestone deterioration (in the form of recession or erosion rates) and changing air quality has been the subject of much debate. A 30-year record of limestone erosion rates from the balustrade of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK has been obtained from five micro-erosion meter (MEM) sites (last remeasured in September 2010) providing a unique, long-term dataset with which to examine the nature and causes of changing deterioration, particularly the existence of a memory effect. Whilst atmospheric sulphur dioxide concentrations fell from a daily average of 80 ppb in the early 1980s to less than 3 ppb by the late 2000s, erosion rates (measured as surface lowering or recession) only declined from 0.049 mm a-1 to 0.035 mm a-1 over the same period. A more conservative measure of the rate of surface change (which includes both lowering and raising of the surface) fell from 0.044 mm a-1 to 0.026 mm a-1 over the same period. The rates of surface change and erosion were significantly higher in the 1980-1990 measurement period compared to the 1990-2000 measurement period, whilst the average rates for the 1990-2000 measurement period were approximately the same as those for the 2000-2010 measurement period. There is no clear evidence for a memory effect, and rates of erosion and surface change now approach those found on natural karst surfaces.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Atmospheric Environment

ISSN

1352-2310

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

1

Volume

62

Page range

521-529

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-11-14

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