A hypothesis for crack free interior surfaces of Longyou caverns caved in argillaceous siltstone 2000 years ago

Five complete caverns were discovered in Longyou in 1992. They were manually caved in argillaceous siltstone at shallow depths more than 2000 years ago. When they were un-watered, their integrity was maintained completely, and their interior rock surfaces were free of old cracks. Since then, however, the rock's interior faces have initiated and propagated more and more cracks. This paper attempts to address the question of why the rock interior faces were free of old cracks once they were unearthed. To address this question, this paper proposes a hypothesis that the argillaceous siltstone has the ability of self-healing its cracks over a short period of time under weak acid water environment. Data and evidence are presented herewith to prove the hypothesis. They include observations and measurements in the field and test results in the laboratory. Specifically, a three-point bending test is used to form a tensile crack in a rectangular rock specimen and a dead load test for the specimen immersed in initially weak acid water is used for self-healing its crack. The results have shown that the argillaceous siltstone is in a state of weak alkalinity and the rain water at the site is in a state of weak acidity. Therefore, when it is immersed in weak acid water for some time, the argillaceous siltstone would be able to make chemical reactions to generate new minerals such as calcite. The new minerals would be able to infill the cracks and then heal the crack within a few years. Once the crack is self-healed, the rock can regain its strength and integrity. Consequently, the rock interior surfaces could be free of old cracks when the water was pumped out of the caverns.