[ RadSafe ] Dinosaur Bones

KARAM, PHILIP PHILIP.KARAM at nypd.org
Mon Jul 15 09:39:28 CDT 2013


Incidentally, coal, black shales, hydrocarbon deposits, and other organic-rich geologic materials usually contain elevated levels of U and decay series nuclides for the reasons already mentioned - the relative insolubility of U when it enters anoxic waters, causing it to precipitate from solution. As a bonus, radium, which remains in solution, can substitute for calcium in rocks (e.g. travertine) or in bones.

Andy


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Dan McCarn
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2013 1:01 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Dinosaur Bones

Of course they are! Where have you been, Joe?

The Apatite in bones traps Uranium and Rare Earths, making them quite
radioactive.  I used a scintillation counter in field work (Jurassic
Morrison) to locate bones. I'd commonly get percent levels of both uranium
and a number of REs in analyses.

The fish bone detrital deposits (phosphorites) in Florida, Louisiana, North
Africa, parts of the middle east & the Precaspian typically contain 125 ppm
U and byproduct uranium production has been done by over 20 countries. The
Precaspian deposits in in Kazakhstan were the chief source of phosphate
fertilizer for the former Soviet Union as well as a major source of
uranium.

The uranium is 90% recoverable if the ore is processed using the Wet
Phosphoric Acid process.  The ore is processed using H2SO4 creating H3PO4.
Solvent extraction (kerosene & DEPA-TOPO) is used to remove the uranium
from the raw phosphoric acid. Most of the radium is incorporated into the
precipitated CaSO4 (gypsum) and discarded as tailings.

See http://www.aiche-cf.org/Clearwater/2008/Paper1/8.1.4.pdf


No big deal.

Dan ii

Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home - New Mexico)
+1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com


On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 11:10 AM, <JPreisig at aol.com> wrote:

> Dear Radsafe,
>
>      Hope you are well.  According to television  (Ancient Aliens show)
> Dinosaur bones are quite radioactive
> (Calcium, K-40, Radon, what else???).  Anybody ever count any???   What
> were the radionuclides
> present?????
>
>     They also suggest, possibly, that nuclear warheads were  also a
> possible mechanism for ending the dinosaur era.  Wonder who nuked
>  them????  I
> guess some dinosaurs survived the bombing (birds, some  reptiles, some
> dinosaurs, Nessie (Loch Ness), Coelocanths etc.).  I guess  Ocean water
> would be a
> pretty good shield against nuclear blasts.
>
>     I guess other mechanisms for dinosaur destruction were
> comets/asteroids, volcanoes, etc.
>
>     If nuclear bombing of the Earth did occur, then one  wonders how
> completely (by surface area) the Earth's surface was  destroyed.  Is the
> iridium
> layer observed worldwide rather continuous in  extent and thickness, and
> could it have been produced by nuclear warheads?   Or is the Iridium layer
> distribution more pointlike
> (i.e. indicated by circular areas on the Earth's surface, i.e. kindof like
> a Poisson Distribution???).
>
>     Maybe some of you can stop laughing/guffawing now.   Time to get your
> favorite Geiger counter or portable MultiChannel Analyzer and  Germanium
> detector and count some bones at your local museum.
>
>     One Ancient Alien Archeology site had traces of  radioactivity, but the
> buildings etc. were still standing.
> Did someone have a neutron bomb way back when????  Of course, the  Ancient
> Alien shows never tell you the activity levels present or the
>  radionuclides
> which were present.
>
>     Regards, Joe Preisig
>
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