Stone weathering under Mediterranean semiarid climate in the fortress of Nueva Tabarca island (Spain)

Finally, a novel parameter (Equivalent Years, Yeq) is defined in order to quantify the representativeness of standarized artificial ageing tests. Yeq expresses the number of years of natural ageing required for achieving the same weathered state of rocks after laboratory procedures. A wide range of Yeq values are obtained for the studied rocks (from 8 to 165 years), showing a strong dependency with both the exposure time as well as the agressiveness of the environment.