Uncompressed 25.8 MB - Disaster Pages of Dr George, PC

high density and relative hardness. Specifically my research at the time also involved the
investigation of the crystallographic inversion of the skeletal materials of recent corals which
were deposited in the form of aragonite and their conversion to the calcite crystal structure,
as well as the selective substitution of calcium by other alkaline earth metals - such as
barium and strontium - which had greater ionic radii. I believed that the crystallographic
ratios, and perhaps the inversions were dependent on the substitution of barium and
strontium by calcium and that the fossil corals at depth were slowly being altered from
aragonite to calcite, paradoxically with about 8% volume expansion. I was trying to
determine whether a quantitative relationship existed between the strontium (mainly) content
of the corals and their aragonite-calcite ratios. My preliminary results indicated that indeed
there was such a relationship. I wondered if could determine a similar relationship in the
skeletal material of the deep-sea coral I had obtained. I wondered if I could find barium and
possibly radioactive strontium 90 substitution in the aragonite structure.
At the time there was proliferation of nuclear testing in the Pacific so strontium-90 was
abundant as well as other radionuclides. Since 1945, the nuclear powers had exploded more
than 2,000 nuclear devices and there had been major radioactive fallout, particularly in the
Pacific region. The United States had been carrying bomb testing on Bikini Atoll since1954.
The Soviets had begun major testing in 1964. The French had begun mostly atmospheric
tests at the Moruroa Atoll that same year. In view of all that nuclear testing, there was a
strong belief that there was radioactive contamination of many regions of the Pacific, as far
South as New Zealand. But could the strontium-90 from atmospheric nuclear testing have
been up taken by this deep ocean corals? This was a question that I was interested in
answering. Certainly the recent surface corals could uptake radioactive nuclides, but given
the depth of the water and the slow growth rate of the skeletal materials of this deep-sea
coral, perhaps it was too early for strontium 90 to show up in the structure. Nonetheless, I
was determined to find out, anyway - if I could.
I had complete access to the Chemical Oceanography Laboratory at the University.
Professor Brian Pasby had given me access to all the equipment and instruments there.
Also, the late Professor Harry Zeitlin had given me access to some of the instrumentation of
the Chemistry Department at Bilger Hall, where I had been a PhD. graduate student. Also,
he had provided me with ion exchange resins so I could concentrate trace elements in my
samples, for subsequent controlled analyses using gas chromatography, X-rays and other
analytical methods.
In the following days and with great reluctance, I cut a section off my small fragment of the
precious coral, immersed it in Clorox to destroy the organic ingredients, had it cleaned and
properly dried to avoid contamination, grinded it up, then begun a mineralogical
investigation. As I suspected the crystal structure of my precious coral turned out to be a
very dense form of wonderful aragonite. No calcite was present. It was pure aragonite, the
orthorhombic polymorph of CaCO 3 . Its density being D x (g/ 3 ) 2.93. It was indeed a miracle
of nature. Each of the aragonite's millions of individual structural units, repeated in all
directions and formed a wonderful, compact geometric pattern - in the orthorhombic
crystallographic system. Much like a diamond of the sea - but of course not as hard. But
what was amazing about this coral is that it was a miracle of order and structure, created by
living marine organisms.
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