The Use of Magnetic Susceptibility as a Technique to Measure the Impact of Wildfires on Archaeological Heritage

Abstract

Featured Application: Assessing non-destructively the maximum temperature attained by granitic rocks during fires. Wildfires are one of the main threats of natural areas and often fires can affect protected or heritage areas and properties, in which the preservation requirements demand the use of non-destructive techniques (NDTs). The magnetic susceptibility is an NDT that provides information on the mineralogical composition of the materials but has never been applied to the evaluation of fires. Here, we combine laboratory with field analysis to test the applicability of the magnetic susceptibility for the assessment of the impacts of wildfires. The laboratory results showed an increase in the magnetic susceptibility with the temperature, more evident in the samples heated to 600 °C and above. The in situ measures revealed a spatial variation in the magnetic susceptibility, which was related to the behaviour of the fire in the area. The samples were later analysed with other magnetic destructive techniques that were used to confirm the mineralogical processes that occurred in the materials. The increase in the susceptibility values were due to the formation of iron oxides. The destructive analysis also showed the presence of minerals such as hematite and magnetite in the samples. Overall, the study allowed a first approach to test the magnetic susceptibility as a simple and fast way to measure the impacts of wildfires.