Marshall Island Rock Discussion about Radiation

Parts of the Marshall Islands are more radioactive than Chernobyl and Fukushima, study finds

edit: this is just a small sample of what is out there. Do some digging if you really want to see video of the detonations and how large they were compared to some of the ships in the radius. Some of the stuff they did during those tests are pretty graphic and inhumane... just a warning if you start to go down the rabbit hole.
I read through the article and also looked into citations from research they used and although I'm not doubting their results, it really seems a little misleading to be honest when written as the title of the link you left is. That makes it sound (to me at least) like nowhere in Chernobyl is more radioactive than certain locations in the Marshall Islands. In reality, there are areas near the reactor which are so radioactive just one minute of exposure will lead to a human's inevitable death. What they compared were specifically soil samples containing Plutonium. In the research cited in the article one thing they made a point of mentioning was that the radiation of the samples didn't have correlation with the distance from the reactor meaning they don't know if the samples tested represent the highest levels of radioactivity even in the soil alone... nevermind other parts of the old power plant.
 
It
Why assume…let’s test it!!
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Looks absolutely awesome, don't get me wrong but the Indonesian stuff isn't far off by any means. It looks like some of the pieces were bigger than those we get from Indonesia here and might have been available in more interesting shapes however.
 
Both @fishguy242 and I have Marshall Island rock from 2003 and earlier. I'd be interested to know how bright the flash would be if we got too much too close together

Interested in shipping me a few smaller pieces in the name of science? I will cover the shipping costs and throw in some extra for the rock!
 
Interested in shipping me a few smaller pieces in the name of science? I will cover the shipping costs and throw in some extra for the rock!
Now the ruse is revealed!
The whole thread was a ploy to get @lilzbra some Marshall Islands rock!
Lol :)
Kidding, look forward to what you find.
 
Now the ruse is revealed!
The whole thread was a ploy to get @lilzbra some Marshall Islands rock!
Lol :)
Kidding, look forward to what you find.

=P

However, as it has been pointed out earlier in the thread we should know the origin of the rock that we are testing, and will need rock from multiple origins.

But starting with a piece of "unknown origin" Marshall Island rock is still a start!
 
Great information being shared on this topic! I still would love to see some true Marshall Island Rocks next to a Geiger counter to satisfy my scientific curiosity. The Marshall Islands are rated as one of the most toxic places on earth because of all of the nukes that were detonated there. However, as some have stated in this thread, it is home to such a rich diversity of reef life. Makes you wonder just a bit...
The rating of "one of the most toxic places on earth" I find curious and it leaves me with a tad bit of disbelief. I am certain my backyard could be rated as "one of the most beautiful gardens in the world" by the listing agent for the property but it really isn't. I would love to live in the Marshall Islands, right on top of the test site if I could trade my place for a test site with an ocean view and swimable beach :cool:.

I have had a piece of uranium ore since I was a kid. It came on some funky rock collection (for childred!) that had 20 or so different samples of geology glued on with the names of each rock underneath the specimen. I would like to test that with a rad meter, same curiousity perhaps?
The study looked at Strontium-90 in baby teeth. Local samples near me were found to have higher levels, apparently due to the effects of the Fermi power plant:


Jay
I'm glad I didn't keep my baby teeth but feel bad for the tooth fairy.

I'm going to start looking for Marshall Isle rock to see if we can get some numbers to solve this curiousity.

 
The rating of "one of the most toxic places on earth" I find curious and it leaves me with a tad bit of disbelief. I am certain my backyard could be rated as "one of the most beautiful gardens in the world" by the listing agent for the property but it really isn't. I would love to live in the Marshall Islands, right on top of the test site if I could trade my place for a test site with an ocean view and swimable beach :cool:.

I have had a piece of uranium ore since I was a kid. It came on some funky rock collection (for childred!) that had 20 or so different samples of geology glued on with the names of each rock underneath the specimen. I would like to test that with a rad meter, same curiousity perhaps?

I'm glad I didn't keep my baby teeth but feel bad for the tooth fairy.

I'm going to start looking for Marshall Isle rock to see if we can get some numbers to solve this curiousity.

I read through the article and also looked into citations from research they used and although I'm not doubting their results, it really seems a little misleading to be honest when written as the title of the link you left is. That makes it sound (to me at least) like nowhere in Chernobyl is more radioactive than certain locations in the Marshall Islands. In reality, there are areas near the reactor which are so radioactive just one minute of exposure will lead to a human's inevitable death. What they compared were specifically soil samples containing Plutonium. In the research cited in the article one thing they made a point of mentioning was that the radiation of the samples didn't have correlation with the distance from the reactor meaning they don't know if the samples tested represent the highest levels of radioactivity even in the soil alone... nevermind other parts of the old power plant.
Read my above quote from an earlier post I made...
 
The flora and fauna on ring of fire rock is unparalled. Fijian, Tongan, Marshall Islands rock is some of the best in the world between natural formation and 'live' things on the rock.

I would give top dollar for Marshall Island rock. If I had known back when I had some that I would never be able to get it again, I would had figured out a way to keep some around.
 
The rock from the MI was taken from the islands where people live. If you are not hearing about radioactive Marshall Islanders, then you are probably OK with their rock.

The MI rock was so awesome because it was super light and porous. I have a piece the size of a basketball that weighed about 5 lbs. A similar size piece of real caribbean rock was about 30 pounds, and fiji more like 20 lbs. The MI rock was $7-8 a pounds whereas other fiji, etc was about $5 a pound. It was excellent for dentrification and cheap for the volume that you go.

It stopped getting collected is because it was being farmed to use for hundreds of miles of road base in the islands. The reef hobby could not even use like 1/8 to 1/4 of a mile of this much rock. The rock was no longer live reef, but it did have plenty of life on it and supported tons of fish. It was a good thing that they stopped taking it from the ocean. I just heard this in a few places, so the details might not be 100% true.

You all know that Bikini Atoll to Majuro is about 500 miles, right?
 
Radiation is not an issue. Bikini took the brunt of the testing. There's two chains of islands that make up the RMI, Rataak and Ralik. The largest population base is in Ebeye and Kwajalein, both located 250 miles away and in the Ralik chain (same as bikini).

The capitol, Majuro is in the Rataak chain, some distance away.

You can still dive Bikini atoll about once a year. There's a live-aboard that go's thru there. Its quite an expensive and long journey via a live-aboard dive boat to do so.....used to be cheaper and more accessible. Given you can dive there, the waters are relatively safe as the ocean is huge and able to dissipate pollutants more readily than the soils.

What makes Marshall islands rock unique is its lightweight and porous structure. You cannot harvest from the ocean side, as most of the time, the waves are too turbulent and would wash away anything lightweight over time. The lagoon is much much calmer and shallow.......more likely to find rock here.

As for the original question, Kwajalein has a robust ES&H department that conducts testing throughout the year, as well as the Corp of Engineers. Radiation levels are low enough that you can dive 10 days a week, 10 hours a day you'd be unaffected. Some of the bigger problems are fuel oils leaking from the numerous ship wrecks from WW2, with the Prinz Eugen being the biggest offender. I think there was a recent effort to remove some of the fuel oil by mechanical means.

Pics for reference are from ocean side ( I know, i said earlier, no live rock is found on the Ocean side, this is the exception) in an area referred to as the "Japanese tide pools" where portions of the solid reef were removed to add onto the island. This type of reclamation also happened on Majuro to expand the airport runway capabilities.

Fun fact, coralline algae actually grows on the bottom of the live rock, not the top naturally.


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Radiation is not an issue. Bikini took the brunt of the testing. There's two chains of islands that make up the RMI, Rataak and Ralik. The largest population base is in Ebeye and Kwajalein, both located 250 miles away and in the Ralik chain (same as bikini).

The capitol, Majuro is in the Rataak chain, some distance away.

You can still dive Bikini atoll about once a year. There's a live-aboard that go's thru there. Its quite an expensive and long journey via a live-aboard dive boat to do so.....used to be cheaper and more accessible. Given you can dive there, the waters are relatively safe as the ocean is huge and able to dissipate pollutants more readily than the soils.

What makes Marshall islands rock unique is its lightweight and porous structure. You cannot harvest from the ocean side, as most of the time, the waves are too turbulent and would wash away anything lightweight over time. The lagoon is much much calmer and shallow.......more likely to find rock here.

As for the original question, Kwajalein has a robust ES&H department that conducts testing throughout the year, as well as the Corp of Engineers. Radiation levels are low enough that you can dive 10 days a week, 10 hours a day you'd be unaffected. Some of the bigger problems are fuel oils leaking from the numerous ship wrecks from WW2, with the Prinz Eugen being the biggest offender. I think there was a recent effort to remove some of the fuel oil by mechanical means.

Pics for reference are from ocean side ( I know, i said earlier, no live rock is found on the Ocean side, this is the exception) in an area referred to as the "Japanese tide pools" where portions of the solid reef were removed to add onto the island. This type of reclamation also happened on Majuro to expand the airport runway capabilities.

Fun fact, coralline algae actually grows on the bottom of the live rock, not the top naturally.


P4080908.JPG



P4080963.JPG

P4080914.JPG


P4080976.JPG

P4080979.JPG

P4080929.JPG
P4080940.JPG
P4080989.JPG


P4080990.JPG
Awesome images and information!
 

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