Acid rain in Mexico case: Maya monuments

摘要

The Maya monuments in South East Mexico and Central Americal are being considered as a whole, "Monuments to Mankind" by UNESCO. However, there is great concrn over the unwanted threat potential of acid rain on these buildings of distorical importance. Effects of acid deposition on monuments are well known and demonstrated either by natural weathering or by man made pollutants. The occurrence of acid deposition on the Mexican Maya area has been registered by our group at National University of Mexico, suggesting that due to the physical and chemical characteristics of the construction material used by the Mayan civilisation, a potential for deterioration could exist in such monuments. The purpose of this paper is to present the advances and preliminary results of an ongoing research performed in our laboratory on the effects of the acid rain deposition on the construction materials of these monuments.