Changes

== Radioactive materials ==

== Radioactive materials ==

The breaking of the crust, and the out-rushing of the subcrustal ocean, produced earthquakes the like of which had not occurred before and will never occur again. These earthquakes, acting on [[quartz]] distributed liberally but unevenly throughout the earth's crust, created electromotive potentials high enough to ionize [[atom]]ic nuclei completely and to break down the natural resistance of these nuclei to fuse. Heavy-elemental nuclides fused to form super-heavy elements. These then decomposed, by a combination of fission and cluster decay, to produce [[uranium]], [[thorium]], and [[radiocarbon]]. Uranium and thorium were subject to [[acclerated decay]] and produced the rest of the trans-lead elements we know today. (The heaviest isotope of uranium might also have decayed, in the wild, through a two-step beta-decay pathway to produce [[neptunium]] and [[plutonium]].)

The breaking of the crust, and the out-rushing of the subcrustal ocean, produced earthquakes the like of which had not occurred before and will never occur again. These earthquakes, acting on [[quartz]] distributed liberally but unevenly throughout the earth's crust, created electromotive potentials high enough to ionize [[atom]]ic nuclei completely and to break down the natural resistance of these nuclei to fuse. Heavy-elemental nuclides fused to form super-heavy elements. These then decomposed, by a combination of fission and cluster decay, to produce [[uranium]], [[thorium]], and [[radiocarbon]]. Uranium and thorium were subject to [[accelerated decay]] and produced the rest of the trans-lead elements we know today. (The heaviest isotope of uranium might also have decayed, in the wild, through a two-step beta-decay pathway to produce [[neptunium]] and [[plutonium]].)

This process released a "tsunami" of [[neutron]]s that flowed in all directions. The subcrustal ocean absorbed most of these neutrons. The subcrustal waters that escaped, persist as cometary ices that are known to have twice (or more!) of the concentration of [[deuterium]] one finds in the oceans of earth. Other crustal elements absorbed the remaining neutrons, to form the heavy (and in some cases, radioactive) isotopes of lead and lighter elements.

This process released a "tsunami" of [[neutron]]s that flowed in all directions. The subcrustal ocean absorbed most of these neutrons. The subcrustal waters that escaped, persist as cometary ices that are known to have twice (or more!) of the concentration of [[deuterium]] one finds in the oceans of earth. Other crustal elements absorbed the remaining neutrons, to form the heavy (and in some cases, radioactive) isotopes of lead and lighter elements.