Saw an article or documentary and it said something to the effect of Roman buildings heal themselves after being damaged or weather damage.
How can that be
In: Engineering
They don’t. The discussion around it way oversells this supposed “healing” ability.
Occasionally erosion will fill in small surface cracks with less strong calcium carbonate that expands to visibly fill in the surface cracks. This only works for pretty superficial surface cracks and not for structural damage or anything that propagates too far.
Every still standing ancient Roman building has had to undergo regular maintenance to keep it that way. The Pantheon in particular was rebuilt and renovated a lot over the thousands of years it’s been standing. Including a lot of documentation over how badly damaged it’s dome became over the years.
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