Menu
The web site www.cooperativeresearch.org has the following description of the USGS dust analysis exercise, as reported to the St. Louis Dispatch:
On the 17th September 2001, US Geological Survey (USGS) scientists Gregg Swayze and Todd Hoefen went to New York to obtain samples of dust fallout from the WTC collapse. They collected 35 dust samples from a variety of locations around ground zero. This was to complement an airborne spectrographic analysis being carried out by the AVIRIS system. Dr. Roger Clarke, the head of the AVIRIS systems, told the St. Louis Dispatch, “The ground samples gave us up-close, specific information on specific points.” On September 19 they transmitted their data to the USGS office in Denver for analysis.”
“Tests revealed the dust to be extremely alkaline with a pH of 12.1 (out of 14). [St Louis Post-Dispatch, 2/10/02] and that some of it was as caustic as liquid drain cleaner. “We were startled at the pH level we were finding,” Swayze adds. “We knew that the cement dust was caustic, but we were getting pH readings of 12 and higher. It was obvious that precautions had to be taken to protect the workers and people returning to their homes from the dust.” Sam Vance, an environmental scientist with the EPA, sends the results to officials at the EPA, the NY Health Department and US Public Health Service.”
What Could Have Caused The Dust To Have Such A High pH
i.e. Be More Caustic Than Drain Cleaner?
It is not possible to measure the pH of a dry substance. The high pH readings the USGS obtained were actually measured by putting the dust in water first and then seeing how alkaline or acidic the solution became. On the site, which is likely where pH tests took place (if you’ve ever tested your pool pH you might know how easy this is and it seems logical and plausible that pH testing was done on site), this moisture would come from the hands, skin and lungs of rescue workers – and the people of New York – and all of the moisture in the air, carrying the dust.
The fact that such high pH was measured means that the concrete dust either contained or had been turned into a strongly caustic or alkaline reagent by whatever it was subjected to when the towers collapsed.
How Could This happen?
Dry cement powder is comprised of 64% Calcium Oxide (CsO). When this is combined with water it forms an alkaline solution of Calcium Hydroxide or Ca(OH)2 similar to “drain cleaner” which is Sodium Hydroxide. In ready to mix cement and concrete, the Calcium Oxide is combined with other oxides. When water is added, the CaO turns into Ca(OH)2 which then in turn reacts with the other oxides present in the raw cement to form the inert finished mass of Calcium Silicate, Calcium Aluminum Silicate and similar substances which we call concrete.
Therefore pulverized concrete or cement dust is not in itself caustic but in fact very inert. The only way the concrete dust could be made caustic would be for it to be subjected to intense heat of over 800 degrees C.
The intense heat generated during the collapse of the World Trade Center literally calcined the Calcium Silicate and Calcium Aluminosilicate of the concrete back into Calcium Oxide.
This analysis of the caustic nature of the dust by the USGS therefore confirms and corroborates the reports of the very high temperatures under the collapse site and on the surface itself.
We are told that the intense heat generated by the jet fuel fires melted the 47 steel box columns of the World Trade Center and caused its total collapse.
Thermal calculations have already shown that this is impossible.
But the specific heat capacity of concrete is even higher then steel. Even more thermal energy would be required to heat the concrete to calcine it into CaO than to melt the steel – and there was far more concrete in the buildings then steel.
Energy Comparison
How much energy would be required to heat concrete dust of the World Trade Center sufficiently?
Concrete will decompose into carbon dioxide and CaO at between 1,400 to 1,600 Fahrenheit or 760 to 870 Celsius.
Let’s assume that less then half the concrete in each building was calcined, i.e. about 50,000 tonnes.
The specific Heat Capacity of concrete is 0.8kJ/kg.K
The thermal energy required to raise that mass of concrete to 760 Celsius
from room temperature is therefore:
50,000 x 1,000 x 0.8 x (760-25) kJ = 2.9 x 1010kJ or 2.9 x 1013J.
How much thermal energy is available from the fuel in a Boeing 767?
The maximum Fuel Capacity of a standard B767 is 16,700 US Gallons or 112,725 pounds (and we do know that the alleged plane, if it impacted the buildings, had only 10,000 gallons on board at impact.)
The Heat of Combustion of Jet A is 42.8 MJ/kg.
The Total Thermal Energy available from the fuel is therefore:
(112,725/2.2)kg x 42.8 MJ = 2.2 x 1012J
Therefore even assuming that the total theoretical energy of the fuel was converted into heating up the concrete of the buildings, with 100% conversion efficiency, there would be insufficient energy available to calcine more than a small fraction of the concrete in the World Trade Center.
In reality, much of the fuel from at least the second alleged aircraft impact was expended in a large fireball outside the building. And the official explanation for the collapse is that the burning fuel melted the steel columns of each tower, which would leave no energy left to render the concrete dust caustic.
According to the official FEMA report, the fraudulent examination of one of the worlds most important events and certainly the most important event this century, the 767s carried much less than a full load of fuel, estimated in fact at 10,000 USG.
This amount of fuel could only raise 2,233 tonnes of concrete to 760 Celsius from room temperature, even with a completely unrealistic 100% conversion efficiency.
insufficient energy available to calcine more than a small fraction of the concrete
insufficient energy available to calcine more than a small fraction of the concrete
Other Caustic Sources
There is another source of caustic agents that would have raised the pH in the dust: the radioactive oxides of Calcium, Barium, Strontium and Zinc produced by the nuclear fission and decay. These oxides all form an alkaline solution on contact with water. We have seen that the jet fuel could not possibly have calcined enough concrete to turn the dust caustic. The shock wave itself from the nuclear blast would not calcine the concrete either, but there were eyewitness accounts of the pyroclastic dust “sizzling” as it passed, so evidently the dust was at a high temperature – whether it was hot enough to have calcined the concrete we don’t know at this time.
However, if we say that the intense volcanic heat was localized to the sub-basement levels under the tower, coming from the molten core of some type of nuclear event, and that this heat had no effect on the majority of the dust from the disintegrating towers, the radioactive fallout in the dust would be caustic.
Therefore, the caustic nature of the dust could yet be another indication that the towers were subjected to a nuclear explosion. We can certainly agree we would expect to find caustic dust, caused by the presence of alkali forming oxides of the common nuclear fission products – Barium, Strontium, Zinc and also Calcium.
There is overwhelming evidence that extraordinarily high temperatures were produced during the collapse of the World Trade Center and that they persisted for weeks if not months after the collapse.
University of California at Davis
Aerosol Analysis
The UC Davis DELTA Group (Detection and Evaluation of Longrange Transport of Aerosols) is a collaborative association of aerosol scientists at several universities and national laboratories in the United States. The DELTA Group has measured aerosols’ emissions from the 1991 Gulf War oil fires, volcanic eruptions, global dust storms and the Asian smogs.
The head of the DELTA Group is Professor Thomas Cahill, who due to his background in nuclear physics is an international expert in atmospheric sciences and the properties of aerosols.
From October 2nd, 2001 until mid-December 2001, a volunteer research team from the DELTA Group monitored the levels of atmospheric particles and aerosols in the atmosphere of New York, following the collapse of the World Trade Center.
An automated particle collection system was set up on the roof of 201 Varick Street, one mile north-northeast of the World Trade Center site. On February 11th, 2002, Professor Cahill gave a press conference to describe some of his findings. He made the following comments, quoted here from the UC Davis press release:
“The air from Ground Zero was laden with extremely high amounts of very small particles, probably associated with high temperatures in the underground debris pile. Normally, in New York City and in most of the world, situations like this just don’t exist.”
That’s code for, “folks, this was a nuclear detonation.”
He further stated:
“Even on the worst air days in Beijing, downwind from coal-fired power plants, or the Kuwait oil fires, we did not see these levels of very fine particulates.”
The amounts of very fine particles, particularly very fine silicon, decreased sharply during the month of October.
“The US Davis DELTA Group’s ability to measure and analyze particle size, composition and time continuously, day and night, is unequalled. There were numerous events when bursts of wind lasting 6 to 8 hours carried unprecedented amounts of very fine particles to the sampling site. In the largest spike, the DELTA Group analysis found 58 micrograms per cubic meter of very fine particles in one 45-minute period – “an extremely high peak” Cahill said.
Metals
Many different metals were found in the samples of very fine particles, and some were found at the highest levels ever recorded in air in the United States.
However, there are few established safety guidelines for airborne metals. One metal for which there is a guideline, lead, was present at low levels in fine and very fine particles.
Some of the metals for which there are no guidelines that were present in very fine particles in relatively high concentrations were Iron, Titanium (some associated with powdered concrete), Vanadium, Nickel (often associated with fuel-oil combustion), Copper and Zinc. Mercury was seen occasionally in fine particles but at low concentrations. Many of those metals are widely used in building construction, wiring and plumbing. Some are common in computers. The metal of the coarse particles is still being analyzed.
What are these small very fine particles that Cahill was making such a point about? How could a metal aerosol be produced? Very high temperatures would be required indeed.
Very small particles are particularly dangerous since they can bypass the bodies natural defence mechanisms and if breathed in, enter directly into the bloodstream. They can also pass through HEPA filters, the finest grade of gas mask available and they can even enter the body through the skin. They are a serious hazard.
Anything with a diameter of less then 2.5 millionths of a meter is to be considered dangerous for these reasons.
in New York City and in most of the world,
situations like this just don’t exist.
The press release further states:
“There are no established safe limits for inhaled very fine particles. The closest reference is the US EPA “PM2.5” standard, which limits the allowable mass of airborne particles 2.5 micrometers to (0) Zero micrometers. That standard is based on health studies of typical air samples, in which very fine particles are a small fraction of the total mass. In contrast, in the World Trade Center dust samples analyzed at UC Davis, the very fine particles are a large fraction of the total mass.”
So we can understand that Professor Cahill would want to draw attention to the fine particulates for health and safety reasons. But is there more to it?
Prof. Cahill also explained the meaning of the generation of the particles to reporters more clearly:
“The presence of coarse particles immediately after days of rain indicated that they were being continually re-generated from a dry, hot source, not re-suspended from roadways and other surfaces.”
Cahills words. Continually Regenerated.
“The very fine particles were high in a number of species generally associated with combustion of fuel oil – such as Sulfur, Vanadium and Nickel, and incineration of plastics and other organic matter.”
“There were also an unusual, very fine, silicon-containing aerosol. This latter type of aerosol can be produced only by very high temperatures, including vaporisation of soil and glass.”
“We had seen this previously, but at much lower concentrations, in the plumes of coal-fired power plants in the EPA BRAVO study in Texas, the burning oil fields of Kuwait, and Beijing during the winter coal heating season.”
“In the case of metals, we saw many different species in the very fine particles. Most, including Lead and Mercury, were at low concentrations at our site, but some, such as Vanadium, were the highest that we have seen recorded.”
This is very important. Cahill was saying that the ground under Ground Zero was so hot that the soil itself was vaporized. Glass was not just being melted, but boiled away – and this was still happening weeks later. Even after rain had dampened down the site, these aerosols were being regenerated by the intense underground heat sources. An Ongoing Fission Process.
The presence of Vanadium is very interesting. Cahills comment about Vanadium and Nickel being associated with the combustion of fuel oil, plastics or organic matter is completely incorrect and draws immediate attention to this incongruity. Sometimes people tell little white lies.
Where would this Vanadium have come from – the highest concentration they had ever seen? Vanadium is not a common element and certainly not a common component of skyscrapers.
The evidence was in the dust…
• Chemical Analysis •
But before we get to Vanadium, more on Cahill. Quoted from Cahill’s PowerPoint file:
1. Initial fires and collapse-derived “dust storm”
2. Continuing emissions from the debris piles
Both cases shared the unusual aspect of a massive ground level source of particulate matter in a highly populated area with potential health impacts.
Why do we care about very fine (0.26 > Dp > 0.09 μm) aerosols?
EPA (AAAR, 10/2002) summarized 5 causal factors most likely to explain the statistically solid data connecting fine PM2.5 aerosols and human health.
1. Biological aerosols (bacteria, molds, viruses…)
2. acidic aerosols
3. very fine/ultra fine ( < 0.1 μm) insoluble aerosols
4. fine transition metals
5. high temperature organics
Four of the five reached unprecedented ambient levels in the very fine aerosol plumes from the WTC collapse piles
On most days, the plumes lofted above NYC so that only those on or near the WTC site breathed these aerosols.
Problems:
We see very fine aerosols typical of combustion temperatures far higher than the WTC collapse piles. We see some elements abundantly and others hardly at all, despite similar abundances in the collapse dust. We see organic species in the very fine mode that would not survive high temperatures.
Explanation
The hot collapse piles are converting some species to gasses that can escape to the surface of the piles and then form aerosols, a process that yields very fine particles.
This report, the Powerpoint presentation by Cahill is a whitewash to cover the truth and it works poorly.
The asbestos fears are uncalled for yet every truck was washed before leaving Ground Zero?
They washed off the radiation.