10x – This image is of a tiny piece of 99+% pure Thallium metal that was fresh cut from a large chunk of thallium. What was a shinny silvery white metal within a few seconds transformed its outer surface with a blue-black oxide.
10x – This image is of a tiny piece of 99+% pure Thallium metal that was fresh cut from a large chunk of thallium. What was a shinny silvery white metal within a few seconds transformed its outer surface with a blue-black oxide.
20x – This microscopic image of the previous picture shows what happens when the blackish oxide was placed in a Petri dish with a small amount of water. The black oxide promptly dissolved leaving this whitish surface color with a few remaining pieces of oxide still clinging to the thallium metal.
15x – This microscopic image shows how the water has dissolved all of the oxide coating, which after a few days developed whitish patches suggesting hydroxides.
30x – A magnified view of the previous image better illustrates these translucent bluish-white patches forming on this metal that is still submerged in water.
10x –After several days being submerged in distilled water the original tiny piece of metal has almost completely dissolved.
30x – A magnified view of previous image.
10x – As the water dried in the Petri dish white and bluish-white hydroxide crystals formed around the circumference of the Petri dish.
30x – A magnified view of the preceding image.
This quick test demonstrates how easy it is for thallium as a metal to dissolve and form oxides that eventually becomes intimate with the soil and water. A question is—do the various thallium compounds in Sierra County eventually breakdown and allow the actual thallium to become an oxide, that not only contaminates the terrain, but poses a threat to all life forms? So far, the evidence I have accumulated strongly suggests that this has been and is occurring.
This next set of images illustrates how I vacuum filter water samples to see if I can capture suspended solids that may reside within the water.
Shown is a vacuum pump hooked-up to a plastic line that is connected to a flask that is fitted with a Gooch crucible.
The porcelain Gooch crucible with two GF/A 1 micron glass filters about to be subjected to water being poured into the crucible.
The air holes are purposely exposed so anyone can see that crucible is a filtration device.
In this test of TorC’s public drinking water I could only capture a few black particles. Clearly, if suspended particles are present they are too small to be captured with 1 micron filters. Therefore, a much smaller pore size is required (less than 0.01 micron) to capture colloidal or nano sized particles.
The smallest gold particle in a gold pan a prospector can see with 20/20 vision is about 40 microns.
There’s ample evidence that when nature calls upon rocks with wind, rain, cold and dry hot weather that whatever minerals reside within rocks eventually becomes dirt and dust. Likewise as the minerals erode into their primary parts, such as iron and manganese, etc., it appears that thallium becomes an oxide or will actually dissolve and infiltrate not only the soil but also aquifers.
Conclusion: I seriously doubt that any filter will be able to remove the majority thallium from TorC’s drinking water. I’ve already shown that a 0.01 micron filter canister failed to remove thallium from the kitchen faucet water in Carrollton, GA.
R.W. sent (10-8-10) me 3000 mL of water from a commercial water store in TorC. Three 1000 mL tests were conducted the same way as all prior water tests. Surprisingly this water produced very little dry debris.
8x – This magnified view of the Vreeland burn shows obvious contamination of the remaining dried debris.
The sodium doublet lines are almost exactly lined up and what little bit they are off is not interfering with showing a fair line for thallium.
Based upon these 3 burns I am forced to say that this commercial water store using Reverse Osmosis filtration is able to reduce the amount of debris by at least 90%, and the thallium in TorC’s Municipal drinking water by about HALF. Yet, despite this obvious improvement there remains the need to eliminate all or most of the thallium to avoid the accumulative effects that Thallium is reported to have upon health.
Cattail Reeds residing in the Rio Grande River water.
This Cattail sample was collect by R.W. from the Rio Grande River near downtown TorC.
The burn results of the stalk are: Tl = fair, Ag = very faint, Hg = very faint, Fe = fair,
Pt = faint, Ir = n/d, Os = fair, Pd = faint, Rh = fair, Ru = fair, Re = faint, Na = good, K = fair.
The Red # 1 arrow is pointing to where this cattail was collected.
I suspect the area of these reeds is associated with the Hot Springs water drainage emptying into the Rio Grande River.
The Red DOTS are a few of the areas around TorC where samples of rock, dirt and clay have been collected and analyzed.
I have read accounts that when white men first arrived in what is now TorC that the dirt was white due to the sun dried metal salts emanating from the Hot Springs run-off water.
Therefore, I believe all the evidence suggests that all the dirt, clay and rocks in TorC and the Hot Springs water emptying into the Rio Grande River is substantially contaminated with thallium and the associated elements.