Close-up Of Photo by Frank Silecchia, North Tower, 27th Sept 2001

Enhanced Close-up Of Photo by Frank Silecchia, North Tower, 27th Sept 2001

 

'The laws of physics are immutable'. That means they are static, they don't change.In practice, that means specific markers can be used to catagorise material. With burning metal, a colour temperature chart will tell you the temperature that a material is burning at.

We can see from the photos above that the material would appear to be a form of metal based upon its colour and texture. We can also see what appears to be molten metal dripping away from the bottom. The photo shows no other signs of over-exposure and the molten aspects have epicentres consistant with independent droplets of molten metal. In addition, the lighting is consistant with the event.

If we now compare the colour of this molten metal against a 'Metal Temperature by Colour' chart we can get an approximate temperature range.

Metal Colour Chart

In the case of the photo above, it would be classed, cautiously (i.e. using the darkest patches), as a salmon-to-yellow-hot temperature (1550 - 1900oF, 845 - 1040oC). This enables us to rule out all elements or alloys that would melt below that range.

The below list of metals we can exclude as possibilities as a result:

Aluminum - Al - 1220F/660C
Antimony - Sb - 1167F/630C
Bismuth - Bi - 520F/271C
Cadmium - Cd - 610F/321C
Lead - Pb - 621F/327C
Magnesium - Mg - 1202F/650C
Phosphorus - P - 111F/44C
Tin - Sn - 450F/232C
Zinc - Zn - 787F/419C

This now leaves us with a list of possible candidates:

ASTM E119 Certified Steel - 3000F/1649C
Beryllium - Be - 2340F/1280C
Chromium - Cr - 3430F/1890C
Cobalt - Co - 2723F/1495C
Copper - Cu - 1981F/1083C
Gold, 24K Pure - Au - 1945F/1063C
Iridium - Ir - 4449F/2454C
Iron - Fe - 2802F/1539C
Manganese - Mn - 2273F/1245C
Molybdenum - Mo - 4760F/2625C
Nickel - Ni - 2651F/1455C
Osmium - Os - 4892F/2700C
Palladium - Pd - 2831F/1555C
Platinum, Pure - Pt - 3224F/1773C
15% Irid Plat - 3310F/1821C
10% Irid Plat - 3250F/1788C
5% Irid Plat - 3235F/1779C
Rhodium - Rh - 3571F/1966C
Ruthenium - Ru - 4500F/2500C
Silicon - Si - 2605F/1430C
Silver, Pure - Ag - 1761F/961C
Silver, Sterling - 1640F/893C
Silver, Coin - 1615F/879C

Given the shape, size and context of the site, the majority of metals on our list can be ruled out as they don't tend to be used in that fashion. Occam's razor would suggest that we are looking at steel or copper.

We can now look at our list of possible candidates and compare it against the photo. Using reference images, we can identify materials based on their visual characteristics.

Enhanced Close-up Of Photo by Frank Silecchia, North Tower, 27th Sept 2001

 

Examples of Molten Copper

 

Examples of Molton Steel

As we can see from the above images, the 'Examples of Molten Steel', would be more consistant with the image of molten metal at the WTC. The colour, temperature and general texture are consistant.

As we will observe later, the ground temperature had a maximum recorded temperature of 1341F/727C. The temperature of the steel observed on the 27th September 2001 is physically impossible without some form of localised additional source of heat, an accelerant.