I've found the following reference, but cannot find out if the paper refers to the yellow molten metal pouring from the South WTC Tower:
Steven E. Jones, “What accounts for the molten metal observed on 9/11/2001?”, Journal of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, 83:252, 2006.
Would anyone out there have more information?
UPDATE: I did find this discussion:
Molten metal, White Smoke and the World Trade Center Collapses
Steven E. Jones, with Jeffrey Farrer, Wesley Lifferth, John Ellsworth, Jared Dodson, and Jacob Stevenson
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University
Abstract for a presentation at the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, April 7, 2006 at Snow College, Ephraim, Utah.
Dramatic video footage reveals yellow-to-white hot molten metal dripping from the South WTC Tower shortly before its collapse on 9/11/2001. [1] (See: http://www.checktheevidence.com/911/Thermite2.htm ) The fact that this is indeed molten metal was confirmed in official FEMA and NIST 9/11 reports. [2, 3] Could this be molten aluminum (from the plane), or molten steel (due to fires), or molten iron (due to thermite reactions)?
The yellow-white color implies a molten-metal temperature of approximately 1000 -1200 oC, above the temperature which the dark-smoke fires in the Towers would likely produce.[1] In any case, structural steel melts at about 1510 oC, far above that which could be attained from the fires, and several scientists and engineers confirm that the jet fuel (or other fires that day) could NOT have melted the steel.[1] Hence, the molten structural-steel hypothesis is ruled out.
How about aluminum? If aluminum alloy (e.g., from the plane) had melted, it would melt and flow away from the heat source at its melting point of roughly 500 - 650 oC and thus would not reach the yellow color observed for this molten metal. Furthermore, aluminum has unusually low emissivity and high reflectivity, so that in daylight conditions molten aluminum at any temperature will appear silvery-gray (confirmed in experiments done at BYU). But this molten metal clearly appears bright yellow-white, in broad daylight. Hence, molten aluminum is also ruled out as an explanation.
However, molten iron with the characteristics seen in this video is consistent with a thermite-reaction occurring in the Tower, since thermite produces molten iron at yellow-to-white hot temperatures:
2Al + Fe2O3 = Al2O3 + 2Fe (molten iron), ?H = ? 853.5 kJ/mole.
Thus, the yellow-white hot molten metal seen on 9/11 could be molten iron from a thermite-derivative reaction. Indeed, we have found no other reasonable explanations. Anomalous pools of red-to-yellow-hot molten metal observed under the rubble piles of both Towers and WTC 7 lend further evidence for the occurrence of highly-exothermic thermite reactions associated with the collapses of these WTC skyscrapers on 9/11/2001.[1]
1. S.E. Jones, “Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?” available at: http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html.
2. McAllister, T., ed. 2002. World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations. FEMA 403. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC, May, 2002.
3. NIST, http://wtc.nist.gov/progress_report_june04/appendixh.pdf
UPDATE: I did find this discussion:
Molten metal, White Smoke and the World Trade Center Collapses
Steven E. Jones, with Jeffrey Farrer, Wesley Lifferth, John Ellsworth, Jared Dodson, and Jacob Stevenson
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University
Abstract for a presentation at the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, April 7, 2006 at Snow College, Ephraim, Utah.
Dramatic video footage reveals yellow-to-white hot molten metal dripping from the South WTC Tower shortly before its collapse on 9/11/2001. [1] (See: http://www.checktheevidence.com/911/Thermite2.htm ) The fact that this is indeed molten metal was confirmed in official FEMA and NIST 9/11 reports. [2, 3] Could this be molten aluminum (from the plane), or molten steel (due to fires), or molten iron (due to thermite reactions)?
The yellow-white color implies a molten-metal temperature of approximately 1000 -1200 oC, above the temperature which the dark-smoke fires in the Towers would likely produce.[1] In any case, structural steel melts at about 1510 oC, far above that which could be attained from the fires, and several scientists and engineers confirm that the jet fuel (or other fires that day) could NOT have melted the steel.[1] Hence, the molten structural-steel hypothesis is ruled out.
How about aluminum? If aluminum alloy (e.g., from the plane) had melted, it would melt and flow away from the heat source at its melting point of roughly 500 - 650 oC and thus would not reach the yellow color observed for this molten metal. Furthermore, aluminum has unusually low emissivity and high reflectivity, so that in daylight conditions molten aluminum at any temperature will appear silvery-gray (confirmed in experiments done at BYU). But this molten metal clearly appears bright yellow-white, in broad daylight. Hence, molten aluminum is also ruled out as an explanation.
However, molten iron with the characteristics seen in this video is consistent with a thermite-reaction occurring in the Tower, since thermite produces molten iron at yellow-to-white hot temperatures:
2Al + Fe2O3 = Al2O3 + 2Fe (molten iron), ?H = ? 853.5 kJ/mole.
Thus, the yellow-white hot molten metal seen on 9/11 could be molten iron from a thermite-derivative reaction. Indeed, we have found no other reasonable explanations. Anomalous pools of red-to-yellow-hot molten metal observed under the rubble piles of both Towers and WTC 7 lend further evidence for the occurrence of highly-exothermic thermite reactions associated with the collapses of these WTC skyscrapers on 9/11/2001.[1]
1. S.E. Jones, “Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?” available at: http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html.
2. McAllister, T., ed. 2002. World Trade Center Building Performance Study: Data Collection, Preliminary Observations, and Recommendations. FEMA 403. Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC, May, 2002.
3. NIST, http://wtc.nist.gov/progress_report_june04/appendixh.pdf
Jones certainly includes it as such on his CV:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/currvitaApril09.htm
You could email him, or the journal editor:
http://www.utahacademy.org/officers.php
Good idea, JDB. Thanks.
ReplyDelete