3 ms·

Ah shucks ... I was hoping the Pu dated to sometime before the Holocene.

• philipkglass 4y ago
  This is the earliest report of terrestrial plutonium predating the Holocene: Nature volume 234, pages 132–134 (1971) "Detection of Plutonium-244 in Nature" Mass spectrometric measurements of plutonium isolated from Precambrian bastnasite confirm the presence of 244Pu in nature. Although the existence of 244Pu as an extinct radioactivity has been postulated to explain the xenon isotope ratios observed in meteorites, this is the first indication of its present existence in nature. Plutonium 244 of course has a much longer half life (80 million years) than the isotopes analyzed in these sediments. https://www.nature.com/articles/234132a0 https://www.nature.com/articles/234132a0 (https://sci-hub.ru/10.1038/234132a0 https://sci-hub.ru/10.1038/234132a0)
  • 8bitsrule 4y ago
    Good find, had never heard of that (discovered by Darlene Hoffman of Los Alamos in some CA phosphate). Guess the word didn't get around very fast, the 'man-made element' claim was around for a long time. Here's some more, from Sci.American Mar 1998: [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-transuranic-elements-s/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-transuranic-el...]