Thermite and the red-gray chips

The authors studied four dust samples collected separately, one about ten minutes after the second tower fell. They found “distinctive red/gray chips” in all of them. The red layer, they report, ignites at about 430°C, well below normal thermite, and leaves iron-rich spheres. They conclude it “is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic.” [1]

The authors’ listed affiliations include Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and other groups that dispute the official account. [1]

The journal was published by Bentham Science. Its editor-in-chief, Marie-Paule Pileni, told the Danish science site Videnskab.dk she had not been told the article would appear, that the subject did not belong in her journal, and that she resigned. [1]

Critics argue the chips are primer paint from the towers’ steel, which also contains iron oxide and aluminum compounds. NIST did not examine the chips. It says thermite burns slowly compared with explosives and would need several minutes in contact with a massive steel section to weaken it substantially, and its researchers estimated at least 0.13 pounds of thermite per pound of steel would be needed, meaning very large quantities placed against the columns. [2]