ACP45 Loc: Rhode Island

The official account of the events of September 11, 2001, has been used:

*to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which have resulted in the deaths of over a million people; [1]

*to authorize torture, military tribunals, and extraordinary rendition; and

*to suspend freedoms guaranteed by the American Constitution such as habeas corpus in the USA, and similar freedoms in Canada, the UK, and other countries.

The official claims regarding 9/11 are contradicted by facts that have been validated by a scientific consensus process, and which include the following points of “best evidence”.

Today, Point #3 will be presented. Over the course of the next 45 days I will post the balance of each successive point for your consideration.
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The Official Account
The Twin Towers were brought down by airplane impacts, jet fuel, and office fires. [1]


The Best Evidence
Experience, based on physical observation and scientific knowledge, shows that office fires, even with the aid of jet fuel, could not have reached temperatures greater than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius).

But multiple scientific reports [2] show that metals in the Twin Towers melted. These metals included steel, iron, and molybdenum – which normally do not melt until they reach 2,700°F (1482°C), 2,800°F (1538°C), and 4,753°F (2,623°C), respectively


References for Point 3

[1] NIST NCSTAR 1, Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, September 2005, p. 15. Regarding airplane impacts, see pp. 150-51; Jet fuel, pp. 24, 42; Fires, pp. 91, 127, 183.

[2] RJ Lee Group, “WTC Dust Signature Report: Composition and Morphology,” December 2003, p. 21.
RJ Lee Group, “Expert Report: WTC Dust Signature,” May 2004, p. 12.

Heather A. Lowers and Gregory P. Meeker, US Geological Survey, US Department of the Interior, “Particle Atlas of World Trade Center Dust,” 2005.

Steven E. Jones et al., “Extremely high temperatures during the World Trade Center destruction,” Journal of 9/11 Studies 19 (January 2008).

For discussion and summary, see David Ray Griffin, The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7, pp. 39-44.
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In my mind, this is perhaps one of the most important elements that disproves the official account of the 9-11 Commission Report.

I have attached the full report by Steven E. Jones et al, for those of you who 1) do not believe that there was molten steel, vaporized lead or aluminosilicates at the site, or 2) that the diffuse flames of jet fuel and building material could generate sufficient heat to cause the resultant molten steel, vaporized lead and aluminosilicates.

Here are a few key segments from the Steven Jones report:

4.2. Volatilized lead

The RJ Lee report notes “extremely high temperatures during the collapse which caused metallic lead
to volatilize, oxidize, and finally condense on the surface of the mineral wool [1].” Again, “metals were
vaporized at the WTC during the WTC Event and either deposited on WTC Dust or deposited directly onto
surfaces in the Building [1].” Where do the requisite high temperatures come from?
An additional characteristic of WTC Dust is the presence of coated particles and fibers. The coatings
vary in thickness from monolayers to finely-dispersed sub-micron sized particles. The coated particles
have been detected by low voltage back-scattered electron imaging, x-ray microprobe analysis, and
high resolution x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) as illustrated as an example in figure 3 and
figure 4. Figure 3 shows traces of lead compounds identified on the surfaces of mineral wool by XPS,
and the analysis of x-ray photoelectron spectra led to the identification of two peaks containing either
lead oxide or lead sulfate (figure 4). The presence of lead oxide on the surface of mineral wool
indicates the existence of extremely high temperatures during the collapse which caused metallic
lead to volatilize, oxidize, and finally condense on the surface of the mineral wool [1].
The temperature required to volatilize/boil lead is 1,740 C or 3,164 F [8]. No explanation for the origin of
the indicated “extremely high temperatures during the collapse” is offered in the RJ Lee report.

4.4. Materials from WTC with a “Swiss-cheese appearance” corroborate high temperatures

Dust particles from the WTC collapse show a “Swiss cheese appearance as a result of boiling and
evaporation,” as reported in the RJ Lee report:

Additionally, WTC Dust can be differentiated from other building dust on the basis of its unique
composition and morphology. WTC Dust Markers exhibit characteristics of particles that have
undergone high stress and high temperature. Asbestos in the WTC Dust was reduced to thin bundles
and fibrils as opposed to the complex particles found in a building having asbestos-containing surfacing
materials. Gypsum in the WTC Dust is finely pulverized to a degree not seen in other building debris.
Mineral wool fibers have a short and fractured nature that can be attributed to the catastrophic collapse.
Lead was present as ultra fine spherical particles. Some particles show evidence of being exposed to
a conf**gration such as spherical metals and silicates, and vesicular particles (round open
porous structure having a Swiss cheese appearance as a result of boiling and evaporation).
-Materials t***sformed by high temperature (burning). These t***sformed materials include: spherical
iron particles, spherical and vesicular silicates, and vesicular carbonaceous particles. These heat7 Extremely
high temperatures during the WTC destruction processed constituents are rarely, if ever, found together with mineral wool and gypsum in “typical” indoor dusts [1].

The RJ Lee report provides an image of a “vesicular alumino-silicate particle” which exemplifies the
“round open porous structure having a Swiss cheese appearance as a result of boiling and evaporation”
(below, left). [1] The images below “show the difference between an angular non-porous non-heat affected
particle within a Background Building [right] and a porous WTC Dust silicate heat-affected particle [left]”.
It is not clear to us that boiling of aluminosilicate is needed to produce the observed porous structure;
melting and evaporation of some minor component may suffice. But if the “Swiss-cheese appearance” is
indeed a result of “boiling and evaporation” of the material as the report suggests [1], we note the boiling
temperature for aluminosilicate is approximately 2,760 °C [11].

The phrase “Swiss cheese appearance” was also used by a team from Worcester Polytechnic Institute led by
Prof. Jonathon Barnett in describing steel from WTC 7.

The significance of the work on a [steel] sample from Building 7 and a structural column from one of
the twin towers becomes apparent only when one sees these heavy chunks of damaged metal. A oneinch
[steel] column has been reduced to half-inch thickness. Its edges--which are curled like a paper
scroll--have been thinned to almost razor sharpness. Gaping holes--some larger than a silver dollar--let
light shine through a formerly solid steel flange. This Swiss cheese appearance shocked all of the firewise
professors, who expected to see distortion and bending--but not holes [12].

The researchers argue that a eutectic formed at approximately 1,000 °C in this steel sample from WTC 7:
A liquid eutectic mixture containing primarily iron, oxygen, and sulfur formed during this hot
corrosion attack on the steel… The eutectic temperature for this mixture strongly suggests that the
temperatures in this region of the steel beam approached 1,000 °C (1,800 °F), which is substantially
lower than would be expected for melting this steel [13].

However, to form a molten iron-oxygen-sulfur eutectic at about 1,000 °C would require a very high
concentration of sulfur, around 50 (mol. %) [14]. ]. The fact that sulfur evaporates at a low temperature, 445
°C, along with the very low levels of elemental sulfur in office buildings appears to preclude the possibility that
the eutectic could have formed as a result of a slow sulfidation process in the debris pile. In any case, the
authors admit that the severe corrosion and subsequent erosion of Samples 1 [WTC7] and 2 [Towers] are a very unusual event. No clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified [13].

It is interesting that the FEMA report discussed the “evidence of a severe high temperature corrosion attack
on the steel, including oxidation and sulfidation” and called for further investigation, [13] – but the subsequent
NIST report [15] failed to address this evidence. Nor did NIST address the published observations of abundant
iron-rich spherules in the WTC dust [1, 2]. We find that these effects are important to understanding the events
of 9/11/2001 and should not be neglected.

4.5. Summary of Temperatures Required by the WTC Data

The formation of spherules in the dust implies the generation of materials somehow sprayed into the air so
that surface tension draws the molten droplets into near-spherical shapes. That shape is retained as the droplet
solidifies in the air. Spherules observed in the WTC dust include iron-rich, molybdenum-rich and silicate
varieties. The temperatures required to melt iron, silicates, and molybdenum, and to vaporize lead and
aluminosilicates (as discussed above) are summarized in table 1.

Table 1. Approximate Minimum Temperatures Required
Process and material °C °F

To form Fe-O-S eutectic (with ~50 Mol % sulfur) in steel 1,000 1,832

To melt aluminosilicates (spherule formation) 1,450 2,652

To melt iron (spherule formation) 1,538 2,800

To melt iron (III) oxide (spherule formation) 1,565 2,849

To vaporize lead 1,740 3,164

To melt molybdenum (spherule formation) 2,623 4,753

To vaporize aluminosilicates 2,760 5,000

4.6 Maximum temperatures associated with the WTC fires

Finally, we consider the temperatures reached in normal building fires, jet-fuel fires and in the World Trade
Center buildings. Maximum temperatures due to fires in the WTC of around 1,000 C are argued by Thomas
Eagar:

The fire is the most misunderstood part of the WTC collapse. Even today, the media report (and
many scientists believe) that the steel melted. It is argued that the jet fuel burns very hot, especially
with so much fuel present. This is not true.... The temperature of the fire at the WTC was not
unusual, and it was most definitely not capable of melting steel.

In combustion science, there are three basic types of flames, namely, a jet burner, a pre-mixed flame,
and a diffuse flame.... In a diffuse flame, the fuel and the oxidant are not mixed before ignition, but
flow together in an uncontrolled manner and combust when the fuel/oxidant ratios reach values within
the flammable range. A fireplace is a diffuse flame burning in air, as was the WTC fire. Diffuse flames
generate the lowest heat intensities of the three flame types... The maximum flame temperature
increase for burning hydrocarbons (jet fuel) in air is, thus, about 1000 °C -- hardly sufficient to
melt steel at 1500 °C.

Extremely high temperatures during the WTC destruction
But it is very difficult to reach this maximum temperature with a diffuse flame. There is
nothing to ensure that the fuel and air in a diffuse flame are mixed in the best ratio... This is why the
temperatures in a residential fire are usually in the 500 °C to 650 °C range. It is known that the
WTC fire was a fuel-rich, diffuse flame as evidenced by the copious black smoke [16].”
NIST provides a maximum gas temperature due to WTC fires of 1,000 °C:
In no instance did NIST report that steel in the WTC towers melted due to the fires. The
melting point of steel is about 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Normal building fires
and hydrocarbon (e.g., jet fuel) fires generate temperatures up to about 1,100 degrees Celsius (2,000
degrees Fahrenheit). NIST reported maximum upper layer air temperatures of about 1,000 degrees
Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) in the WTC towers (for example, see NCSTAR 1, figure 6-36)
[17].

Based on this comprehensive investigation, NIST concluded that the WTC towers collapsed
because: (1) the impact of the planes severed and damaged support columns, dislodged fireproofing
insulation coating the steel floor trusses and steel columns, and widely dispersed jet fuel over multiple
floors; and (2) the subsequent unusually large jet-fuel ignited multi-floor fires (which reached
temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius) significantly weakened the floors and columns with
dislodged fireproofing to the point where floors sagged and pulled inward on the perimeter columns[18].

In actual metallurgical analyses of WTC steel, NIST reports:
These [steel] microstructures show no evidence of exposure to temperatures above 600°C for any
significant time [18]. In a report entitled “Fire Safety in High-rise Buildings, Lessons Learned from the WTC,” a team of fire experts notes: Standard structural fire testing exposes elements to about 900 °C in 1 hour and up to 1,100 °C by 4 hours. The expectation of these standard tests could well be defined as providing a worst-case fire
scenario [19].

All of these estimates for the WTC fires (including burning jet fuel) put the temperature well below the
melting point of steel, about 1,500 °C [17].

Attached file:
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