Basalt

[robina_williams]

Could basalt from an erupted volcano be used as a building material?

 

[billslugg]

Yes, basalt is an excellent building material. Nosing around the internet I found that it has a compressive strength of 27,000 PSI just slightly less than granite at 29,000 PSI. The Egyptians used basalt for floors in the pyramids. At the quarry where they cut the basalt, they paved a road with sandstone and limestone. It is claimed to be the oldest paved road in the world. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[jm9584]

Hmm, where'd my post go...?

 

[robina_williams]

Thank you. So, as basalt could be cut into slabs for flooring, it could obviously be cut into slabs for building house walls. I had been wondering if it was too hard a material to build a house out of, with doorways having to be carved out of it. I was thinking of a house built on a volcanic island (in ancient times). Would the basalt used for building be naturally shiny, do you think, or would it need polishing?

 

[robina_williams]

Sorry, I think I've put this topic in the wrong forum. It should be space technology here, shouldn't it?

 

[spacester]

IMO you're in the correct forum. It's just that you are experiencing the typical non-reaction one gets here when you want to talk about an idea which is not in the mainstream literature but yet is not easily debunked.<br /><br />Most of the folks here seem to think that if 'the experts' haven't talked about it then it must not be viable.<br /><br />You would think that sort of discussion would be exactly the sort of thing space enthusiasts would be interested in talking about, wouldn't you? I still, after all these years, am at a loss to fully explain this observed behavior here.<br /><br />The general subject here is ISRU - In-Situ Resource Utilization - using what is available to best advantage. I was and still am astonished that 'the experts' seem to have no use for basalt.<br /><br />I've proposed using basalt to build a shell of a structure and then using glass made from the regolith to seal the interior. I've looked into it in some detail on a technical basis and I do not see the show-stopper. But discussing the specific idea here has been a non-starter for years.<br /><br />I stayed away from this thread until now as a test to see if anything has changed in this respect. Nope. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[jmilsom]

Basalt was often used for cobblestones. I have tonnnes of old basalt cobblestone blocks around my yard as retaining walls. Each block is very heavy. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[robina_williams]

Thank you for your replies. Jmilsom, where did the basalt for your cobblestones come from?

 

[oscar1]

I don't know about the US, but in Europe they used to be supplied by prisons. They forced the prisoners to chop them to size. They chopping made a sound like 'clink, clink', hence the origin of the word 'klinker' or 'clinker', today often used for a double baked brick suitable for paving.

 

[robina_williams]

That's interesting. I didn't know that was where clinker came from. So, presumably, volcanic regions in Europe or the US must have supplied the basalt to, eg, the prisons for the prisoners to work on. It sounds as if basalt must have been widely used. Thank you.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

They did it in the early US Prisons too. Thats why prisoners spent 10 years "breaking rocks". <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[jmilsom]

Good question. In Victoria Australia, there is a vast lava plain that stretches from Melbourne to Mt. Gambier in the west. There were a number of quarry sites where basalt was extracted for use as building materials.<br /><br />I have found a reference to one quarry, though this is not the one where the original Melbourne cobblestones came from.<br /><br />Niddrie Quarry <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[robina_williams]

Thank you. I hadn't realized that there was a basalt quarry on such a scale. Thanks for the link to a fascinating article. I think I had had the wrong idea about basalt. It seems to have been quarried on a large scale. In fact I hadn't realized that lava plains could be so extensive.

 

[rocksolver]

Using basalt as a building material is an excellent idea!<br /><br />I am biased though as I am developing a method for using low embodied energy rock rubble as a building material. Have a look at my thread from a couple of weeks ago: "Cheap building material on the Moon and Mars". It's a method where the 3D shape of rocks are acquired by a computer which then fits them together in the virtual world and outputs instructions to the builder. I've called it Building by Intelligent Rearrangement.<br /><br />I think it will be a useful method where large amounts of heavy, solid material is required for retaining walls, foundations, cobble roads, protective walls, etc<br /><br />I'm hoping this method will first be used here on Earth in places where concrete is expensive and local rock is available. It will be a couple of years though before I have a prototype. I don't even have the software yet.