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The Strange Glass Born in Nuclear Explosions
Real Clear Science ^ | 19 Apr, 2016 | Ross Pomeroy

Posted on 04/19/2016 9:52:47 PM PDT by MtnClimber

5:30 A.M., Monday July 16th, 1945: The day dawned brighter than ever before over the New Mexico desert. But it was not the Sun's soothing rays that set the landscape alight; it was the radiant flash of the very first atomic bomb.

Trinity, the nuclear offspring of the Manhattan Project, detonated with the force of 21,000 tons of TNT. The accompanying fireball reached temperatures of 8,430 degrees Kelvin, hotter than the surface of the sun, and sent a mushroom cloud of smoke and debris soaring more than seven miles into the sky.

That day, every human on the planet was reborn into a nuclear era, one where mankind now held the power to end its existence. Also born that day was an otherworldly, greenish glass, a physical reminder of the cataclysmic explosion. Scientists dubbed the strange material trinitite.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearscience.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: atomic; dakhlite; glass; impactite; kebirite; manhattanproject; meteoriticglass; meteoriticiron; newmexico; nuclear; trinitite; tutite
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To: Psalm 73
Are you a technical writer?

A cup of coffee for a column inch, don't I wish. Those days are long gone by.

41 posted on 04/20/2016 4:59:01 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: Jonty30

X-ray specs?


42 posted on 04/20/2016 5:08:52 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Moltke
Very old church windows have been observed to be thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom: slowly oozing down...

That is a common misconception. IIRC, before glass-forming machinery was made, glass blobs were spun at the end of the pipe sort of like pizza dough is flattened. I think the rim was thicker than the center. Then it was cut, and mounted with the thicker part down. But with a little research you can verify this.

43 posted on 04/20/2016 5:15:08 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: huldah1776

There have been people living in the Dead Zone for decades. At first the government allowed them there so they could die and prove the government correct. When they failed to die, the government tried to run them off because they were proving the government wrong. .


44 posted on 04/20/2016 5:18:04 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: Still Thinking

If the earth is millions and millions of years old, why hasn’t all the radioactive stuff died out?


45 posted on 04/20/2016 5:26:04 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: AppyPappy

Their kids aren’t doing so well.


46 posted on 04/20/2016 5:52:08 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: imardmd1

The glass in an old window will be thicker at the bottom than at the top due to the glass’s viscosity. Granted, the difference is slight and it doesn’t manifest until many years have passed, but glass is a liquid, albeit a highly viscous one.


47 posted on 04/20/2016 5:57:42 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: huldah1776

Almost all of them are old people. The kids were sent away by the government.
Radiation affects people differently. Some die right away, some die after a long period with related issues and some seem to have no issues. It was the same way with animals.


48 posted on 04/20/2016 6:05:04 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: AppyPappy

wow. super people.


49 posted on 04/20/2016 6:51:32 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: huldah1776

Check out :
Voices from Chernobyl : the oral history of a nuclear disaster / Svetlana Alexievich ; translation and preface by Keith Gessen.


50 posted on 04/20/2016 6:53:43 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you really want to irritate someone, point out something obvious they are trying hard to ignore.)
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To: MtnClimber

I have often wondered if the Middle Est could be turned into a giant solar panel...


51 posted on 04/20/2016 7:25:09 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: imardmd1

Hmmm, I’ll have to update my conception then and look up more recent information. Thanks!


52 posted on 04/20/2016 7:58:56 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building)
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To: IronJack
The glass in an old window will be thicker at the bottom than at the top due to the glass’s viscosity. Granted, the difference is slight and it doesn’t manifest until many years have passed, but glass is a liquid, albeit a highly viscous one.

And the reference for this is?

53 posted on 04/20/2016 8:37:44 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: IronJack
Here's some information on the idea that glass is a liquid that flows over time. I understand you can't take the word of some random website as gospel, but here you go.

The 'glass is a liquid' myth has finally been destroyed

54 posted on 04/20/2016 8:40:07 AM PDT by ConfusedAndLovingIt
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To: Hot Tabasco
If the earth is millions and millions of years old, why hasn’t all the radioactive stuff died out?

Good question!

The Institute for Creation Research has undertaken studies on this kind of thing. Check this out:

The RATE Project

55 posted on 04/20/2016 8:48:00 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: Hot Tabasco

The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.5 billion years, uranium-235 about 700 million years, and uranium-234 about 25 thousand years.


56 posted on 04/20/2016 8:49:21 AM PDT by Pelham (Trump/Tsoukalos 2016 - vote the great hair ticket)
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To: Hot Tabasco
If the earth is millions and millions of years old, why hasn’t all the radioactive stuff died out?

The half-life of U238 is 4.45 billion years. And as U238 decays, other radioactive isotopes are formed. Plus, other isotopes such as Carbon-14 are created in the upper atmosphere as solar radiation and cosmic rays interact with molecules there.

57 posted on 04/20/2016 8:51:15 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: imardmd1

I learned it in a physics class in college.


58 posted on 04/20/2016 8:57:54 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: IronJack
I, too, was taught that in undergraduate classes in ceramic college, but disabused of it when standing closer to the actual research work going on in the field. Under gravity forces alone, window glass compositions do not flow at ambient temperature.

Auto safety glass is placed in severe compression by the manufacturing process such that stress relief through scratching with a sharp tool causes disintegration. But in normal use, these stresses are not dissipated by relaxation through viscous flow.

Likewise, the clear glazes on dinnerware protect the underlying ceramic substrates by remaining in appreciable compression through the life of such articles. Time does not appreciably relieve these stresses built in by differential thermal contraction on cooling from their kiln treatment.

The same is true for glazed ceramic bakeware, like beanpots and casseroles, which see temperatures in use up to, say, 250 deg C.

Given a little challenge, the layman will think this quandary through. Any other questions?

59 posted on 04/20/2016 10:11:07 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: imardmd1

Having been acquainted with this information, and after reading other rebuttals of my established belief, I have to acquiesce to the evidence. I stand corrected.


60 posted on 04/20/2016 10:29:41 AM PDT by IronJack
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