Spall

Egyptian jar
MFA Acc. #: 13.5318

Description

A irregular sized chip or fragment from a ceramic, masonry, stone, or ore surface. Spalling, or breaking up, of the surfaces are often induced by freeze-thaw action, corrosion, or salt formation.

See also Exfoliation, and scaling.

Spalling
Photo credit: J-D Mertz

Synonyms and Related Terms

spalling; spaul

Resources and Citations

• ICOMOS-ISCS: Illustrated glossary on stone deterioration patterns

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996