Yeah I heard about that. A mining company discovered a large amount of fission products. So it is kinda interesting. To do a fission reaction the particles need to be slowed down and so its a surprise that all this could take place.
ISP
Naturally occuring nuclear reaction
by Simon 15 Replies latest jw friends
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JosephAlward
If you're talking about the neutrons liberated when U-235 splits, carbon mixed in with the uranium would slow them. Graphite blocks were used as the moderator in Enrico Fermi's nuclear pile when he created the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction.
Joseph F. Alward
"Skeptical Views of Christianity and the Bible" -
Simon
wow, thanks for all the info - I look forward to reading it all.
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LoneWolf
Hmmmm. If you like this kind of stuff, have you read up on the lakes in Africa that belch up a few cubic miles of carbon dioxide every once in a while and suffocate everyone and his grandmother for miles around?
It's fascinating stuff. Can't say I'd like to live on those shores, though.
LoneWolf
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ashitaka
Naturally occuring nuclear reaction-
Yeah, taco bell is hard on the tukus.
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Mindchild
Lone Wolf...I'm very familar with those "killer" lakes. Scientists are working now to defuse them by releasing the trapped CO2 from the bottom of the lakes that builds up to dangerously high levels, and then a small disturbance in the water releases all that trapped gas. Much like someone shaking and releasing the cork on a bottle of soda water. Did you know that the gas content is also high enough in deep ocean water to pass for soda pop if you put some sugar and flavoring in it? It would still taste bad though from the salts in it.
Simon...I read about this theory of the naturally occuring nuclear reactor some years back. It is pretty cool isn't it? As amazing as this there are other possiblites of nuclear reactions happening on the Earth without human intereference...nuclear fusion reactions! On a macro-scale if a small object (the size of a baseball) was traveling about 100,000 K/s and hit the Earth's surface, you would not have a baseball sized hole...instead it would be a crater miles in diameter! It could easily release over a 100 megaton nuclear explosion. The principle behind this is called impact fusion and is used in laboratories in fusion research. That is one baseball you don't wanna catch!
Today's bonus question: Why are there small flashes of light that happen in deep ocean waters? (Hint...it is not from anything biological)
Skipper