Re: "Dino-radiation?"

[rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu (Ron L. Kathren)]

Recently we received on loan some fossil bones which are suspected of
containing high levelsa of naturally occurring radioactivity for
nondestructive radioassay, which hopefully will be completed within a short
time.  But, the detection of fossilized bones with sensitive instrumentation
in the field is apparently not unusual.  The mechanism seems to be that the
Haversian canals of the bone serve to carry various minerals in  solution
which replace some of the natural matrix (ie calcium) of the bone.  Recall
that radium is a calcium analog.  In any event, one such study of
radioactivity, albeit crude and primitive, done in the early 1950's showed
fossil bones with higer than 'background' levels of activity (cf. Smith and
Bradley, Radioactive Fossil Bones in Teton County, Wyoming, Geological
Survey of Wyoming Report of Investigations 4, 1954).

Hope this helps.

Ron Kathren
Professor, Washington State University

  >Mr Richards,
>I recently witnessed paleontologists using pancake probes (Eberline HP-260)
>to find fossilized bones.  Relatively high levels of Uranium exist in at
>least SOME fossilized bones in the Los Alamos area, but I wasn't able to
>ascertain if the Uranium was concentrated while the creature was alive, or
>if circulating groundwater had transported the Uranium, which was
>subsequently preferentially deposited in the bones.  (The search in question
>was performed in the vicinity of the Seismosaurus find, near San Ysidro, New
>Mexico).                   ron
>
>At 03:18 PM 8/28/96 -0500, you wrote:
>>Radsafers:
>>
>>An article in a local newspaper had the following byline - "Homemade
>>device finds dinosaurs."  An excerpt from the article states "The
>>device, a wedding of high-tech and low-tech, can pinpoint faint
>>radiation emanating from a dinosaur fossil through stone up to a meter
>>thick."
>>
>>There is a picture of the developer of the device (Ray Jones from Univ
>>of Utah) with an assistant using the device.  It looks kinda like a NaI
>>detector mounted in some type of frame.  Anyone out there ever heard of
>>this device, how it works, what radiation it is detecting, etc.?  My
>>interest is purely academic.
>>
>>Mack L. Richard, M.S., R.S.O.
>>mrichard@wpo.iupui.edu
>>
>>
>>
>          **************************************
>          Ron Morgan <rgmorgan@lanl.gov>
>          Operational Health Physics (ESH-1)
>          Los Alamos National Laboratory
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