Ray,
Thanks for the link. I've been doing some speculation on some of the speculation on the causes of the collapses and I still have a hard time picking any particular theory as being the right one.
The theory that a kerosene fire will melt through inches thick steel is absurd as far as I can tell. You'd get a hotter fire from logs on a fireplace grate and depending on the air flow under the logs, you might eventually get close to the cherry red needed to bend mild steel. Gasoline is more volatile than kerosene and I find it hard to imagine the conditions where it would be possible to localize the heat enough to cause a uniform collapse. In a gas fire, the oxygen feeds the flame toward the top of the fire where most of the heat is produced. In the WTC, the films show a uniform collapse several floors below the smoke lines.
The information contained in the link you posted is interesting, but I'm not sure what to make of it. From what I've been able to find online, controlled demolitions use a very limited and precise placement of explosives. A few hundred pounds compared to the 80,000 mentioned as being needed to cause a 2 point quake in the article. I also have trouble understanding why a thermal image of the site was made FIVE DAYS AFTER THE EVENT.
A thermite device could cause steel to melt, but it wouldn't cause much in the way of seismic activity. Unfortunately, the only stuff I know about thermite is what I remember reading in some old Life magazines about WWII when I was a kid. If a kerosene fire somehow weakened the supports enough to bend, then there should have been a ton of evidence to support the theory, as in lots of steel beams that look bent from heat similar to using an acetylene torch.
The real problem with the whole mess is the investigation wasn't done properly, and most of the evidence was carted off before the investigation started. A team of experts and engineers might be able to recreate what happened with the little bit of second hand information that is available, but the hard core proof that would be needed to nail it down 100% is gone. It's no longer possible to do things like metal analysis or investigations for trace residues of explosives or incendiary devices.
Since the law requires a full investigation and prohibits the destruction of evidence, it's pretty hard to explain why it wasn't done that way. |
