MIT Study Reveals Why Roman Concrete Lasts Thousands of Years 685373 Technology News

A recent MIT-led study reveals that Roman concrete’s strength comes from volcanic ash, lime clasts, and hot mixing, giving it self-healing powers that modern cement lacks. 6f3m2w

Written by Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 29 May 2025 21:11 IST

MIT Study Reveals Why Roman Concrete Lasts Thousands of Years

Photo Credit: Pexels/Chait Goli 1w5619

Ancient Roman structures fascinate people and scholars alike

Highlights

Roman concrete contains self-healing lime clasts
Volcanic ash enabled pozzolanic reaction for durability
Hot mixing gave ancient concrete fast-setting strength

ment

Roman empire. While The longevity of these structures can be attributed largely to Roman concrete, question still prevails about the speciality and the materials used in the concrete itself.

Ingredients of Roman concrete 715k1n

According to the MIT) found that not only are the materials slightly different from what we may have thought, but the techniques used to mix them were also different.

One key ingrediant was pozzolan, or ash. The Romans used ash from the volcanic beds of the Italian city Pozzuoli and shipped it all over the empire. The silica and alumina in the ash react with lime and water in a pozzolanic reaction at ambient temperatures, resulting in a stronger, longer lasting concrete.
Another key ingredient is lime clasts, or small chunks of quicklime.

Scientists Transform Lead into Gold, But Only for a Fleeting Moment

These clasts give Roman concrete its self-healing capability. Concrete weathers and weakens over time, but water can infiltrate its cracks and reach the clasts. When they react with the water, the clasts create crystals called calcites that fill in the cracks.

Difference with modern day cement 6z365

The high-temperature kiln process used today to make modern day Portland cement, grinds all materials into fine powder. It eliminates the lime clasts which results into the lack of the self-healing properties of Roman cement.

The Romans utilized a method known as hot mixing, which involves combining quicklime with pozzolan, water and other ingredients and then heating them up. The MIT team found that this method helps unlock the lime clasts' self-healing abilities, and can result in faster setting than cement made with a quicklime-water solution called slaked lime.

Scientists Discover Three-Eyed Sea Moth From Half a Billion Years Ago

NASA's LROC Captures ispace RESILIENCE Landing Site Ahead of June 2025 Lunar Touchdown

Comments

For the latest reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.