Tex wrote:
In article .com,
says...
Oleg Lego wrote:
The Mark & Juanita entity posted thusly:
On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 23:28:25 -0500, "sweetsawdust"
wrote:
... snipped
Here's a really wild hypothesis: Concentrated
NItric acid reacts with celluose to make an explosive (guncotton).
If somebody splashed a little nitric acid on the tree many years
ago then there might have been a little explosive spot in the wood.
I wonder, if you spilled ammonium nitrate fertilizer on a tree,
could it form an inclusion that would go bang fifty years later?
If you didn;t have a posting history, or this was April, I wouldn't
believe the story.
VERY WILD, indeed!
a) HNO3 (nitric acid) would kill any live tree tissue it stayed in
contact with for any significant amount of time
Sure, but most of the wood in a living tree IS dead tissue. Only the
outermost layers are alive. A 'dead' spot on the bark will get
encapsolated if it is not too big. If you splash a little nitric acid
on the bark and convert a little of the bark to nitrocelluose that
little spot will get incorporated int othe wood as the tree grows.
I'm suggesting just a tiny spot, not the whole trunk.
b) NH4NO3 (ammonium nitrate) is not an explosive -- it is an oxidant.
Depends on the conditions. Google Texas City Texas harbor explosion.
When combined with a fuel source (usually hydrocarbons of some sort) the
mixture can be explosive under proper conditions. Is what you're
suggesting that someone bored a hole in a tree, inserted a quantity of
ammonium nitrate, had it encapsulated by the wood tissue rather than
dissolve in the sap and kill the tree, and years later supply the
oxidant for a dust explosion?
No, I'm suggesting that it go onto the bark and was encapsolated into
the tree the same way a stone or nail gets encapsulated, and over the
years converted some of the celluose to nitrocelluose.
--
FF