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 Post subject: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:35 am 
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Radioactive inclusions in quartz, most likely to be uraninite. Tension fractures and dark halos are caused by radiation damage.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:37 am 
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Another specimen with uraninite inclusions.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 2:19 pm 
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Really interesting. Not too dissimilar from the zircon inclusions in diamond.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 3:11 pm 
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Where is this material from?

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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 11:55 pm 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Really interesting. Not too dissimilar from the zircon inclusions in diamond.

Yes, but they are not quite common in quartz.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 11:56 pm 
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ROM wrote:
Where is this material from?

They are from Brazil.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 1:39 pm 
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Specimens of this type:
Specimen 1 only has radiation halos, no inclusion inside.
Specimen 2 has a radiation halo so dark which makes the inclusion indiscernible.
Specimen 3 is a carving.Mutant golden fish with radioactive eyes.(Quite a match)


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 6:14 pm 
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Have any of these specimens been tested with a Geiger Counter?


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:27 pm 
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Barbra Voltaire wrote:
Have any of these specimens been tested with a Geiger Counter?

They've all been tested, no radiation detectable.I guess the radiation of the inclusions is weak and can be contained in the quartz.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:55 am 
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zbhjzm wrote:
They've all been tested, no radiation detectable.I guess the radiation of the inclusions is weak and can be contained in the quartz.

The radioactive decay of uranium and its daughter isotopes produce alpha and beta radiation. Alpha (helium nuclei) and beta (electrons) created in the decays have a lot of kinetic energy, but don’t penetrate very far. So the radiation isn’t exactly weak, but it is contained within the quartz.

Very cool to be able to see the effects of radiation damage without having to worry about the radiation itself.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 2:55 am 
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Brian wrote:
zbhjzm wrote:
They've all been tested, no radiation detectable.I guess the radiation of the inclusions is weak and can be contained in the quartz.

The radioactive decay of uranium and its daughter isotopes produce alpha and beta radiation. Alpha (helium nuclei) and beta (electrons) created in the decays have a lot of kinetic energy, but don’t penetrate very far. So the radiation isn’t exactly weak, but it is contained within the quartz.

Very cool to be able to see the effects of radiation damage without having to worry about the radiation itself.

Yes, it's a good thing there's no γ radiation produced by the inclusions.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:30 am 
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It's also probably had an awful long time to soak. Nothing I'd be too worried about on human timescales.

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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:49 am 
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Stephen Challener wrote:
It's also probably had an awful long time to soak. Nothing I'd be too worried about on human timescales.

Yes,the dark halos probably take billion years to form.:D


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 3:46 pm 
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Well, the half life for uranium 238 decay is 4.5 billion years, about the same as the age of the earth. So those halos will continue darkening for several more billion years.


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 Post subject: Re: Radioactive inclusions in quartz
PostPosted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 10:40 pm 
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Brian wrote:
Well, the half life for uranium 238 decay is 4.5 billion years, about the same as the age of the earth. So those halos will continue darkening for several more billion years.

Yes, that's nice. =D>


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