Southpointe is a 589-acre (238 ha) suburban business park located in Cecil Township near Canonsburg, Pennsylvania , south of Pittsburgh and is a familiar landmark along Interstate 79 . It is home to many corporations, including Fortune 500 members CONSOL Energy and Viatris as well as Ansys .
142-758: Since the development of the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian region, Southpointe has also become home to many natural gas producers, including Range Resources , Noble Energy , EQT Corporation and other service companies related to the industry. Southpointe is also home to the PrintScape Arena at Southpointe , which was the main practice and training facility for the Pittsburgh Penguins from May 20, 1995, until 2015. From 2010 to 2014 its golf course (Southpointe Golf Club) hosted
284-528: A description of this process of reactor control). As little as 15 lb (6.8 kg) of uranium-235 can be used to make an atomic bomb. The nuclear weapon detonated over Hiroshima , called Little Boy , relied on uranium fission. However, the first nuclear bomb (the Gadget used at Trinity ) and the bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki ( Fat Man ) were both plutonium bombs. Uranium metal has three allotropic forms: The major application of uranium in
426-479: A distribution of uranium oxidation species in various forms ranging from most oxidized to least oxidized. Particles with short residence times in a calciner will generally be less oxidized than those with long retention times or particles recovered in the stack scrubber. Uranium content is usually referenced to U 3 O 8 , which dates to the days of the Manhattan Project when U 3 O 8
568-539: A few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite . Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties. Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring fissile isotope , which makes it widely used in nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons . However, because of the low abundance of uranium-235 in natural uranium (which is, overwhelmingly, mostly uranium-238), uranium needs to undergo enrichment so that enough uranium-235
710-566: A form of invisible light or rays emitted by uranium had exposed the plate. During World War I when the Central Powers suffered a shortage of molybdenum to make artillery gun barrels and high speed tool steels, they routinely used ferrouranium alloy as a substitute, as it presents many of the same physical characteristics as molybdenum. When this practice became known in 1916 the US government requested several prominent universities to research
852-741: A fuel in the nuclear power industry and in Little Boy , the first nuclear weapon used in war . An ensuing arms race during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that used uranium metal and uranium-derived plutonium-239 . Dismantling of these weapons and related nuclear facilities is carried out within various nuclear disarmament programs and costs billions of dollars. Weapon-grade uranium obtained from nuclear weapons
994-549: A high-risk area for radon as an indoor air pollutant . From the surface exposures along the northern and eastern margins, the formation descends to depths of over 2,700 m (8,900 ft) below the surface in southern Pennsylvania. Upturned beds are exposed in sections of the folded Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , including exposures on the flanks and axis of the Broad Top Synclinorium in south central Pennsylvania. Exposed beds are nearly horizontal on
1136-690: A higher incidence of cancer . An excess risk of lung cancer among Navajo uranium miners, for example, has been documented and linked to their occupation. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act , a 1990 law in the US, required $ 100,000 in "compassion payments" to uranium miners diagnosed with cancer or other respiratory ailments. During the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, huge stockpiles of uranium were amassed and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons were created using enriched uranium and plutonium made from uranium. After
1278-497: A lesser degree uranium-233, have a much higher fission cross-section for slow neutrons. In sufficient concentration, these isotopes maintain a sustained nuclear chain reaction . This generates the heat in nuclear power reactors and produces the fissile material for nuclear weapons. The primary civilian use for uranium harnesses the heat energy to produce electricity. Depleted uranium ( U) is used in kinetic energy penetrators and armor plating . The 1789 discovery of uranium in
1420-643: A lighter shade of gray. Outcrops of the Marcellus can contain very small beds that resemble coal . The New York outcrops, and others further south in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were extensively excavated in the early 19th century, sometimes at great expense, in the false hope of finding minable coal seams . In Perry County, Pennsylvania along the Juniata River the false coal beds become up to .3 m (1 ft) thick, but they did not produce
1562-448: A much more complicated and far more powerful type of fission/fusion bomb ( thermonuclear weapon ) was built, that uses a plutonium-based device to cause a mixture of tritium and deuterium to undergo nuclear fusion . Such bombs are jacketed in a non-fissile (unenriched) uranium case, and they derive more than half their power from the fission of this material by fast neutrons from the nuclear fusion process. The main use of uranium in
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#17327794987871704-459: A plutonium-based device (see Trinity test and " Fat Man ") whose plutonium was derived from uranium-238. Little Boy became the first nuclear weapon used in war when it was detonated over Hiroshima , Japan , on 6 August 1945. Exploding with a yield equivalent to 12,500 tonnes of TNT , the blast and thermal wave of the bomb destroyed nearly 50,000 buildings and killed about 75,000 people (see Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ). Initially it
1846-405: A reaction by piling together 360 tonnes of graphite , 53 tonnes of uranium oxide , and 5.5 tonnes of uranium metal, most of which was supplied by Westinghouse Lamp Plant in a makeshift production process. Two types of atomic bomb were developed by the United States during World War II : a uranium-based device (codenamed " Little Boy ") whose fissile material was highly enriched uranium , and
1988-399: A relatively deep, sediment- and oxygen-starved ( anoxic ), trough that formed parallel to the mountain chain. These clastic fragments of rock were carried in braided streams to the ancient Catskill Delta , a river delta probably similar to the present day Niger Delta of Africa. Smaller particles remained suspended longer in this epeiric sea , flowing offshore as turbidites in
2130-431: A relatively high proportion of carbon which was burned in the furnace, and sulfur , which produced a usable but " red-short " iron. Red-short iron has the undesirable properties of oxidizing more easily, and a tendency to crack, especially when heated to a red-hot state. In some locations in Pennsylvania the quality of the ore was quite good, with relatively deep veins containing 45% iron, and very low sulfur. In Virginia,
2272-413: A shielding material. Due to its high density, this material is found in inertial guidance systems and in gyroscopic compasses . Depleted uranium is preferred over similarly dense metals due to its ability to be easily machined and cast as well as its relatively low cost. The main risk of exposure to depleted uranium is chemical poisoning by uranium oxide rather than radioactivity (uranium being only
2414-525: A shorter half-life and so is an extinct radionuclide , having long since decayed completely to Th. Further uranium-236 was produced by the decay of Pu , accounting for the observed higher-than-expected abundance of thorium and lower-than-expected abundance of uranium. While the natural abundance of uranium has been supplemented by the decay of extinct Pu (half-life 375,000 years) and Cm (half-life 16 million years), producing U and U respectively, this occurred to an almost negligible extent due to
2556-560: A slow but persistent underwater avalanche. They finally came to rest at the bottom of the Acadian foredeep in the Appalachian Basin , hundreds of meters from shore, at depths that may have been 150 m (490 ft) or more beneath the surface. Alternatively, the basin may have been as shallow as 50 m (160 ft) or less, if the warm water was sufficiently stratified so that oxygen rich surface water did not mix with
2698-466: A valuable fuel, despite the considerable effort expended to mine it from the surrounding hills. Seaweed and marine plants probably formed the false coal. True coal is formed from terrestrial plants, which only began to appear in Marcellus and later fossils. Close proximity to the surface of Marcellus bedrock south of the New York outcrops makes an east–west band running through the city of Syracuse
2840-412: A weak alpha emitter ). During the later stages of World War II , the entire Cold War , and to a lesser extent afterwards, uranium-235 has been used as the fissile explosive material to produce nuclear weapons. Initially, two major types of fission bombs were built: a relatively simple device that uses uranium-235 and a more complicated mechanism that uses plutonium-239 derived from uranium-238. Later,
2982-535: A world total production of 48,332 tonnes. Most uranium was produced not by conventional underground mining of ores (29% of production), but by in situ leaching (66%). In the late 1960s, UN geologists discovered major uranium deposits and other rare mineral reserves in Somalia . The find was the largest of its kind, with industry experts estimating the deposits at over 25% of the world's then known uranium reserves of 800,000 tons. The ultimate available supply
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#17327794987873124-552: Is malleable , ductile , slightly paramagnetic , strongly electropositive and a poor electrical conductor . Uranium metal has a very high density of 19.1 g/cm , denser than lead (11.3 g/cm ), but slightly less dense than tungsten and gold (19.3 g/cm ). Uranium metal reacts with almost all non-metallic elements (except noble gases ) and their compounds , with reactivity increasing with temperature. Hydrochloric and nitric acids dissolve uranium, but non-oxidizing acids other than hydrochloric acid attack
3266-531: Is 240 m (790 ft) thick, thinning to the west, becoming only 15 m (49 ft) thick along the Ohio River , and only a few feet in Licking County, Ohio . The thinning, or stratigraphic convergence, from east to west is caused by decreasing grain size in the clastic deposits, which entered the basin from the east. The beds finally "pinch out" westward because deposition was limited by
3408-523: Is a naturally occurring element found in low levels in all rock, soil, and water. It is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on Earth and is almost always found combined with other elements. Uranium is the 48th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. The decay of uranium, thorium , and potassium-40 in Earth's mantle is thought to be the main source of heat that keeps
3550-530: Is also fissile by thermal neutrons. These discoveries led numerous countries to begin working on the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power . Despite fission having been discovered in Germany, the Uranverein ("uranium club") Germany's wartime project to research nuclear power and/or weapons was hampered by limited resources, infighting, the exile or non-involvement of several prominent scientists in
3692-475: Is an example of shale gas , natural gas trapped in low-permeability shale, and requires the well completion method of hydraulic fracturing to allow the gas to flow to the well bore. The surge in drilling activity in the Marcellus Shale since 2008 has generated both economic benefits and environmental concerns—and thus, considerable controversy. The black shales also contain iron ore that was used in
3834-520: Is believed to be sufficient for at least the next 85 years, though some studies indicate underinvestment in the late twentieth century may produce supply problems in the 21st century. Uranium deposits seem to be log-normal distributed. There is a 300-fold increase in the amount of uranium recoverable for each tenfold decrease in ore grade. In other words, there is little high grade ore and proportionately much more low grade ore available. Calcined uranium yellowcake, as produced in many large mills, contains
3976-689: Is classified as the basal unit of the Hamilton Group (Dh), lying beneath the Mahantango Formation (Dmh) member of this group in Pennsylvania and Maryland. In New York, the Mahantango, also of Middle Devonian age, is further divided. There the Marcellus is separated from the overlying Skaneateles Formation, a more clastic and fossiliferous dark shale, by the thin Stafford or Mottville Limestone bed. In West Virginia,
4118-785: Is difficult to precipitate uranium as phosphate in the presence of excess carbonate at alkaline pH. A Sphingomonas sp. strain BSAR-1 has been found to express a high activity alkaline phosphatase (PhoK) that has been applied for bioprecipitation of uranium as uranyl phosphate species from alkaline solutions. The precipitation ability was enhanced by overexpressing PhoK protein in E. coli . Plants absorb some uranium from soil. Dry weight concentrations of uranium in plants range from 5 to 60 parts per billion, and ash from burnt wood can have concentrations up to 4 parts per million. Dry weight concentrations of uranium in food plants are typically lower with one to two micrograms per day ingested through
4260-418: Is diluted with uranium-238 and reused as fuel for nuclear reactors. Spent nuclear fuel forms radioactive waste , which mostly consists of uranium-238 and poses a significant health threat and environmental impact . Uranium is a silvery white, weakly radioactive metal . It has a Mohs hardness of 6, sufficient to scratch glass and roughly equal to that of titanium , rhodium , manganese and niobium . It
4402-485: Is found in hundreds of minerals, including uraninite (the most common uranium ore ), carnotite , autunite , uranophane , torbernite , and coffinite . Significant concentrations of uranium occur in some substances such as phosphate rock deposits, and minerals such as lignite , and monazite sands in uranium-rich ores (it is recovered commercially from sources with as little as 0.1% uranium ). Like all elements with atomic weights higher than that of iron , uranium
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4544-427: Is only naturally formed by the r-process (rapid neutron capture) in supernovae and neutron star mergers . Primordial thorium and uranium are only produced in the r-process, because the s-process (slow neutron capture) is too slow and cannot pass the gap of instability after bismuth. Besides the two extant primordial uranium isotopes, U and U, the r-process also produced significant quantities of U , which has
4686-424: Is present. Uranium-238 is fissionable by fast neutrons and is fertile , meaning it can be transmuted to fissile plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor . Another fissile isotope, uranium-233 , can be produced from natural thorium and is studied for future industrial use in nuclear technology. Uranium-238 has a small probability for spontaneous fission or even induced fission with fast neutrons; uranium-235, and to
4828-407: Is produced through the thermal decomposition of uranium halides on a hot filament. It is estimated that 6.1 million tonnes of uranium exists in ores that are economically viable at US$ 130 per kg of uranium, while 35 million tonnes are classed as mineral resources (reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction). Australia has 28% of the world's known uranium ore reserves and
4970-441: Is then calcined to remove impurities from the milling process before refining and conversion. Commercial-grade uranium can be produced through the reduction of uranium halides with alkali or alkaline earth metals . Uranium metal can also be prepared through electrolysis of KUF 5 or UF 4 , dissolved in molten calcium chloride ( CaCl 2 ) and sodium chloride ( Na Cl) solution. Very pure uranium
5112-600: Is used for X-ray targets in the making of high-energy X-rays. The use of pitchblende , uranium in its natural oxide form, dates back to at least the year 79 AD, when it was used in the Roman Empire to add a yellow color to ceramic glazes. Yellow glass with 1% uranium oxide was found in a Roman villa on Cape Posillipo in the Bay of Naples , Italy, by R. T. Gunther of the University of Oxford in 1912. Starting in
5254-786: The Mylan Classic , a PGA TOUR sanctioned event on the Web.com Tour (now Korn Ferry Tour). Planning for what would become Southpointe began in the 1980s, as the Washington County Redevelopment Authority in partnership with the RIDC began to pursue a tract of land in Cecil Township that had been the site of the Western Center , a reform school and a state mental hospital. The property for
5396-788: The Aquashicola Creek and McMichael Creek at the foot of The Poconos , and the long, straight section of the Lost River in West Virginia. Below Port Jervis, New York , the Walpack Ridge deflects the Delaware River into the Minisink Valley, where it follows the southwest strike of the eroded Marcellus beds along the Pennsylvania – New Jersey state line for 40 km (25 mi) to the end of
5538-599: The Cincinnati Arch , the bulge that formed the west shore of the basin. Where the formation is relatively thick, it is divided into several members, and as the formation continues to thicken to the east, these members are further divided. Some workers chose to classify the Marcellus as a subgroup, and classify some of the members as separate formations. Oatka Creek shale Cardiff dark gray shale A local Purcell limestone member, 15 to 30 m (49 to 98 ft) of inter-bedded calcitic shale and limestone, divides
5680-702: The Hudson River , along the route of the Delaware and Hudson Canal . Stratigraphically , the Marcellus is the lowest unit of the Devonian age Hamilton Group, and is divided into several sub-units. In the first Pennsylvania Geological Survey , begun in 1836, Henry Darwin Rogers classified the Marcellus as the "Cadent Lower Black Slate" which he numbered "No. VIII b." In the first New York State Geological Survey , also begun that year, James Hall established
5822-402: The Manhattan Project , another team led by Enrico Fermi was able to initiate the first artificial self-sustained nuclear chain reaction , Chicago Pile-1 . An initial plan using enriched uranium-235 was abandoned as it was as yet unavailable in sufficient quantities. Working in a lab below the stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago , the team created the conditions needed for such
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5964-497: The Megatons to Megawatts Program . An additional 4.6 billion tonnes of uranium are estimated to be dissolved in sea water ( Japanese scientists in the 1980s showed that extraction of uranium from sea water using ion exchangers was technically feasible). There have been experiments to extract uranium from sea water, but the yield has been low due to the carbonate present in the water. In 2012, ORNL researchers announced
6106-475: The Oklo Fossil Reactors . The ore deposit is 1.7 billion years old; then, uranium-235 constituted about 3% of uranium on Earth. This is high enough to permit a sustained chain reaction, if other supporting conditions exist. The capacity of the surrounding sediment to contain the health-threatening nuclear waste products has been cited by the U.S. federal government as supporting evidence for
6248-721: The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania , which began on 26 May 1958. Nuclear power was used for the first time for propulsion by a submarine , the USS Nautilus , in 1954. In 1972, French physicist Francis Perrin discovered fifteen ancient and no longer active natural nuclear fission reactors in three separate ore deposits at the Oklo mine in Gabon , Africa, collectively known as
6390-465: The United States (2.5%), Argentina (2.1%) and Ukraine (1.9%). In 2008, Kazakhstan was forecast to increase production and become the world's largest supplier of uranium by 2009; Kazakhstan has dominated the world's uranium market since 2010. In 2021, its share was 45.1%, followed by Namibia (11.9%), Canada (9.7%), Australia (8.7%), Uzbekistan (7.2%), Niger (4.7%), Russia (5.5%), China (3.9%), India (1.3%), Ukraine (0.9%), and South Africa (0.8%), with
6532-474: The United States , it extends throughout much of the Appalachian Basin . The unit name usage by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) includes Marcellus Shale and Marcellus Formation . The term "Marcellus Shale" is the preferred name throughout most of the Appalachian region, although the term "Marcellus Formation" is also acceptable within the State of Pennsylvania. The unit was first described and named as
6674-439: The age of the Earth . The most common isotopes in natural uranium are uranium-238 (which has 146 neutrons and accounts for over 99% of uranium on Earth) and uranium-235 (which has 143 neutrons). Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the primordially occurring elements. Its density is about 70% higher than that of lead and slightly lower than that of gold or tungsten . It occurs naturally in low concentrations of
6816-468: The benthic zone at the bottom of marginal marine to open marine environments that existed west of the ancient Catskill Delta . The fossil record in this member shows the base was dominated by deposit feeders , while the upper layers were dominated by filter feeders . This can be correlated to the lithology: the finer sediments of the shales at the base of this member would contain abundant adherent organic matter for deposit feeders, but would tend to foul
6958-604: The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, an estimated 600 short tons (540 metric tons) of highly enriched weapons grade uranium (enough to make 40,000 nuclear warheads) had been stored in often inadequately guarded facilities in the Russian Federation and several other former Soviet states. Police in Asia , Europe , and South America on at least 16 occasions from 1993 to 2005 have intercepted shipments of smuggled bomb-grade uranium or plutonium, most of which
7100-652: The geological timescale , the Marcellus occurs in the Middle Devonian epoch, of the Devonian period , in the Paleozoic era , of the Phanerozoic eon . Radiometric dating of a Marcellus sample from Pennsylvania placed its age at 384 million years old, and a sample from the bentonite at the top of the Onondaga at 390 ± 0.5 million years old. Relative age dating of the Marcellus places its formation in
7242-432: The oceans may contain 10 kg (2 × 10 lb). The concentration of uranium in soil ranges from 0.7 to 11 parts per million (up to 15 parts per million in farmland soil due to use of phosphate fertilizers ), and its concentration in sea water is 3 parts per billion. Uranium is more plentiful than antimony , tin , cadmium , mercury , or silver, and it is about as abundant as arsenic or molybdenum . Uranium
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#17327794987877384-581: The "Marcellus shales" by J. Hall in 1839. The Marcellus consists predominantly of black shale and a few limestone beds and concentrations of iron pyrite ( Fe S 2 ) and siderite (Fe CO 3 ). Like most shales, it tends to split easily along the bedding plane, a property known as fissility . Lighter colored shales in the upper portion of the formation tend to split into small thin-edged fragments after exposure. These fragments may have rust stains from exposure of pyrite to air, and tiny gypsum ( Ca SO 4 ·2 H 2 O ) crystals from
7526-693: The Allegheny Plateau, but upturned to form slightly overturned beds found along the Allegheny Front . From Wind Gap, Pennsylvania heading south, the dip of the beds steepens, becoming vertical at Bowmanstown on the Lehigh River . Nearby, in the Lehigh Gap area of Pennsylvania, the Marcellus is extensively faulted , and the beds are steeply overturned, with a reverse dip angle of up to 40° south. The Marcellus Shale and
7668-611: The Bell Shale, Rockport Quarry Limestone, and Arkona Shale of Ontario. The Union Springs is an organic-rich, pyritiferous, thinly bedded, blackish gray to black shale with mudstone concretionary layers, and thin silt bands at the bottom. To the east, it becomes the Bakoven Member, a darker, less organic shale with fewer limestone layers. To the west the Union Springs beds thin, with its upper limestones merging with
7810-744: The Cazenovia subdivision of the Givetian faunal stage , or 391.9 to 383.7 million years ago ( Ma ). The Union Springs member, at the base of the Marcellus in New York, has been dated to the end of the Eifelian , the stage which immediately preceded the Givetian. Anoxic dark shales in the formation mark the Kačák Event , a late- Eifelian - stage marine anoxic event also associated with an extinction event . In 2012, Read and Erikson also depicted
7952-729: The Cherry Valley Member, which is also known for its rich nautiloid and goniatite cephalopod fauna. Originally named the Goniatite Limestone , it produces their fossilized remains with shells that can be larger than .3 m (1 ft) across. It also contains the "Cephalopod Graveyard" in the Schoharie Valley of eastern New York, an unusual accumulation of abundant coiled and straight shells of several types of large adult cephalopods. This bed lacks juvenile fossils, indicating that if their behavior
8094-640: The Dean of the Sapienza University of Rome , Orso Mario Corbino , named ausenium and hesperium , respectively. The experiments leading to the discovery of uranium's ability to fission (break apart) into lighter elements and release binding energy were conducted by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Hahn's laboratory in Berlin. Lise Meitner and her nephew, physicist Otto Robert Frisch , published
8236-408: The Earth's outer core in the liquid state and drives mantle convection , which in turn drives plate tectonics . Uranium's concentration in the Earth's crust is (depending on the reference) 2 to 4 parts per million, or about 40 times as abundant as silver . The Earth's crust from the surface to 25 km (15 mi) down is calculated to contain 10 kg (2 × 10 lb) of uranium while
8378-762: The Hamilton Group grades laterally into the Millboro Shale formation in southern West Virginia and Virginia, which grades into the lower part of the Chattanooga Shale of Tennessee . The Milboro is gradational with the underlying Needmore Formation shale. South of the Mason-Dixon line , due to the difficulty in differentiating the Millboro and Needmore shales with the limited exposures available, and initial uncertainty in correlation with
8520-798: The Mahantango Formation, or included in the Montebello Formation ;(Dmot), and only the Shamokin correlates with the Marcellus on adjacent map sheets. In extreme eastern Pennsylvania, the Broadhead Creek member, a dark gray silty shale with dark gray shaly limestone concretions, appears above the Stony Hollow and Union Springs, in a layer up to 275 m (902 ft) thick. There are relatively sparse inclusions of fossilized marine fauna found in
8662-481: The Marcellus and the overlying Hamilton shales are deep, free of stones, and well suited for agriculture . Sampling of soil formed on the Marcellus bedrock showed the dominant mineralogy consisted of quartz , illite , montmorillonite , muscovite , and biotite , with phases of todorokite and trona appearing at depths closer to the bedrock. Upturned beds of the soft shale also capture streams and rivers with relatively straight segments in strike valleys such as
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#17327794987878804-725: The Marcellus in eastern Pennsylvania. The Purcell is stratigraphically equivalent to the Cherry Valley Limestone member in New York, a bioclastic packstone , consisting of skeletal limestones, with shaly intervals between its lower massive limestone layer, thick nodular limestone/ marlstone , and upper limestone layer. Other named members include the Bakoven Shale, Cardiff Shale, Chittenango shale, Solsville sandstone, Union Springs shale and limestone, and Stony Hollow shale and limestone. The Union Springs, Cherry Valley, and Oatka Creek merge beneath Lake Erie, into
8946-565: The Marcellus is mapped with three members, from top to base: The Mahanoy Member (Dmm), a dark gray to grayish black silty shale and siltstone; the Turkey Ridge Member ;(Dmt), an olive to dark-gray fine to medium grained sandstone; and the Shamokin Member ;(Dms), a dark gray to grayish black fissile carbonaceous shale that is calcareous in places near the base. The Turkey Ridge is commonly mapped in
9088-420: The Marcellus may be separated from the brown shales of the Mahantango by occasional sandstone beds and concretions , or it may lie directly below the younger Late Devonian Harrel Formation (or its lateral equivalents) because of a disconformity , which represents a gap in the geological record due to a period of erosion or non-deposition. In eastern Ohio the Hamilton Group also lies disconformably beneath
9230-419: The Marcellus ore occasionally contained zinc , which produced a characteristic green flame in the furnace as it was consumed, but deposited a hard mass of impure zinc oxide known as cadmia , which built up over time near the top of the flue, and had to be removed periodically to keep it unobstructed. Drainage that reacted with the pyrite inclusions also deposited a form of bog iron near several outcrops of
9372-439: The Marcellus overlies the Dundee Formation, a lateral equivalent of the Onondaga. In Pennsylvania, the Marcellus forms a sharp conformable contact with the Onondaga's Selinsgrove Limestone member. A thin pyrite-carbonate bed is also found at the base of the Marcellus black shale in the exposures of south central Pennsylvania, above a thin calcerous green shale bed, which lies upon the Onondaga limestone. In eastern New York,
9514-484: The Marcellus reflect two composite depositional sequences, with a general coarsening upward cycle that continues into the base of the overlying Mahantango Formation. The interbedding of lighter shale and limestone members is attributed to relatively short-term oscillations in basin depth. Later deep water depositional sequences formed the overlying Brallier Formation and Harrell Formation . The shale contains largely untapped natural gas reserves, and its proximity to
9656-421: The Marcellus varied in thickness, becoming unworkably thin, and even disappearing altogether in places between the workable beds. The quality of the ore also varied, and it was not always profitable to smelt , as several furnaces built near iron ore mines in the Marcellus were abandoned before the ore and timber resources used to fuel them became scarce. Ore found interbedded in the black slaty shale contained
9798-415: The Marcellus, but these fossils are still important to paleontology. For example, the Marcellus contains the oldest known diverse collection of thin-shelled mollusks still having well preserved shell microstructure. It is also where goniatites , an extinct shelled swimmer similar to a squid, make their first appearance in the fossil record. Life on land also enters the fossil record in the Marcellus, with
9940-414: The Marcellus. In the 19th century, iron ore from these deposits was used as a mineral paint pigment. After being heated in a kiln and finely ground, it was mixed with linseed oil , and used to paint exterior wood on barns, covered bridges, and railroad cars. In addition to the bog iron, at several sloped locations in eastern Pennsylvania brown hematite was found lying on the Marcellus bedrock buried beneath
10082-700: The New York survey, they were mapped as the Romney Formation, a unit containing all the Middle Devonian strata, named for an exposure at Romney, West Virginia . The correlations were established by 1916 through tracing the New York exposures across Pennsylvania and Maryland into West Virginia, so under the principle of scientific priority , the Romney classification is now obsolete; but its Marcellus and underlying Needmore shale members are still found grouped in an undifferentiated map unit (Dmn). Tioga metabentonite or K- bentonite –stratigraphic unit about .6 m (2 ft) thick that consists of several discrete, relatively thin volcanic ash falls–is also included at
10224-554: The Onondaga suggests that its upper contact with the Marcellus can be erosional. In Erie County in western New York, both the upper and lower contact of the Marcellus are eroded away. In eastern West Virginia the Marcellus overlies the Onesquethaw Group, consisting of the dark gray or green, calcitic, mostly nonfissil Needmore Shale, which grades westward into the Huntersville Chert. To the south and west,
10366-718: The Rhinestreet Shale Member of the West Falls Formation , another transgressive black shale tongue with similar characteristics to the Marcellus. The Marcellus Shale is typically found deposited on the limestone of the Onondaga Formation (Don), which extends down to the end of the Early Devonian period. The contact between them may be sharp, gradational, or erosional. In southwestern Ontario, Canada, north of Lake Erie ,
10508-691: The Russian government approved a federal program for nuclear and radiation safety for 2016 to 2030 with a budget of 562 billion rubles (ca. 8 billion USD ). Its key issue is "the deferred liabilities accumulated during the 70 years of the nuclear industry, particularly during the time of the Soviet Union". About 73% of the budget will be spent on decommissioning aged and obsolete nuclear reactors and nuclear facilities, especially those involved in state defense programs; 20% will go in processing and disposal of nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, and 5% into monitoring and ensuring of nuclear and radiation safety. Uranium
10650-727: The Tioga middle coarse zone. Its basal beds are found within the uppermost beds of the Onondaga Limestone or Needmore Shale, and the uppermost ash bed within the lowermost part of the Marcellus or Millboro Shale. In western New York state, the Tioga Ash Bed B marks the boundary between the Moorehouse and Seneca Members of the Onondaga Formation, but in the central part of the state, and the southern part of
10792-408: The anoxic bottom water. The Marcellus deposition produced a transgressive black shale, because it was deposited in deepening conditions when the basin floor dropped as the mountains rose up. The dark shale facies of the Marcellus were formed from flysch , a fine mud deposited in deep water; the deepening sea that deposited the Marcellus cut off the supply of carbonates that form limestone and
10934-532: The ash into the atmosphere. It was dispersed across the Appalachian , Michigan , and Illinois Basins by the southern trade winds , because this area was in the southern hemisphere during the Devonian period. The volcanic origin of the ash is evidenced by its distinctive mineralogy –the ash was deposited directly upon the water, so its angular quartz grains differ from the clastic sediments rounded through
11076-512: The base of the Marcellus in eastern Pennsylvania. In 1843 it was described without being named by Hall, and more than 100 years passed before it was eventually named for the natural gas field in Tioga County, Pennsylvania , where it was encountered when drilling gas wells . It is a regional stratigraphic marker, used by geologists to identify the Marcellus, and correlate laterally equivalent strata. Difficulty in correctly identifying
11218-550: The basin, the ash beds are actually in the Marcellus. This indicates that deposition of the Marcellus there began earlier, since the ash beds represent a single epoch in geologic time. Maximum thickness of the Marcellus ranges from 270 m (890 ft) in New Jersey, to 12 m (40 ft) in Canada. In West Virginia, the Marcellus Shale is as much as 60 m (200 ft) thick. In extreme eastern Pennsylvania, it
11360-566: The bulk of the use, including common bathroom and kitchen tiles which can be produced in green, yellow, mauve , black, blue, red and other colors. Uranium was also used in photographic chemicals (especially uranium nitrate as a toner ), in lamp filaments for stage lighting bulbs, to improve the appearance of dentures , and in the leather and wood industries for stains and dyes. Uranium salts are mordants of silk or wool. Uranyl acetate and uranyl formate are used as electron-dense "stains" in transmission electron microscopy , to increase
11502-409: The civilian sector is to fuel nuclear power plants . One kilogram of uranium-235 can theoretically produce about 20 terajoules of energy (2 × 10 joules ), assuming complete fission; as much energy as 1.5 million kilograms (1,500 tonnes ) of coal . Commercial nuclear power plants use fuel that is typically enriched to around 3% uranium-235. The CANDU and Magnox designs are
11644-461: The contact between the Marcellus and Onondaga (where present) is gradational. In western New York, the Union Springs member of the Marcellus conformably overlies the Seneca member of the Onondaga Limestone, or the stratigraphically higher Cherry Valley Limestone member may rest directly and unconformably upon the Onondaga in the absence of the Union Springs shale. The local disappearance of units of
11786-549: The contrast of biological specimens in ultrathin sections and in negative staining of viruses , isolated cell organelles and macromolecules . The discovery of the radioactivity of uranium ushered in additional scientific and practical uses of the element. The long half-life of uranium-238 (4.47 × 10 years) makes it well-suited for use in estimating the age of the earliest igneous rocks and for other types of radiometric dating , including uranium–thorium dating , uranium–lead dating and uranium–uranium dating . Uranium metal
11928-442: The development of uranium mining to extract the radium, which was used to make glow-in-the-dark paints for clock and aircraft dials. This left a prodigious quantity of uranium as a waste product, since it takes three tonnes of uranium to extract one gram of radium. This waste product was diverted to the glazing industry, making uranium glazes very inexpensive and abundant. Besides the pottery glazes, uranium tile glazes accounted for
12070-400: The early economic development of the region, and uranium and pyrite which are environmental hazards. At the base of the Marcellus, in the pyrite - carbonate bed between the carbonaceous black shale and a green calcareous shale bed, pyrite, carbonate, and groundwater reacted to form gossan iron oxide and gypsum . As far as the ground water necessary for the conversion could penetrate,
12212-451: The east at a shallower angle also form the steep slopes on the east side of Warm Springs Ridge . The Marcellus is easily eroded , and is also found underlying low areas between some Appalachian ridges, forming linear valleys of moderate relief. These bedrock surfaces are typically covered with colluvium from erosion of stratigraphically higher and more erosion-resistant strata that form the surrounding higher ground. The soils formed from
12354-465: The element very slowly. When finely divided, it can react with cold water; in air, uranium metal becomes coated with a dark layer of uranium oxide . Uranium in ores is extracted chemically and converted into uranium dioxide or other chemical forms usable in industry. Uranium-235 was the first isotope that was found to be fissile . Other naturally occurring isotopes are fissionable, but not fissile. On bombardment with slow neutrons, uranium-235 most of
12496-560: The erosion process that carries them to the sea. As the volcanic ash settled to the bottom, it was admixed with these terrigenous components, producing a distinctive lithology in the sedimentary rock. The Tioga may appear in the formation as a gray, brown, black, or olive bed, or parting, consisting of coarse crystal tuff or tuffaceous shale, thinly laminated, with sand-sized mica flakes. The Tioga ash bed zone consists of eight ash beds labeled according to their stratigraphic order from A (oldest) to H (youngest), and another bed known as
12638-493: The feasibility to store spent nuclear fuel at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository . Above-ground nuclear tests by the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s and by France into the 1970s and 1980s spread a significant amount of fallout from uranium daughter isotopes around the world. Additional fallout and pollution occurred from several nuclear accidents . Uranium miners have
12780-503: The field and several crucial mistakes such as failing to account for impurities in available graphite samples which made it appear less suitable as a neutron moderator than it is in reality. Germany's attempts to build a natural uranium / heavy water reactor had not come close to reaching criticality by the time the Americans reached Haigerloch , the site of the last German wartime reactor experiment. On 2 December 1942, as part of
12922-476: The fine-grained flysch sediments buried the Onondaga limestone beds. Organic matter, probably dominated by plankton , also settled to the bottom, but the normal aerobic decay process was inhibited in the anaerobic environment thereby preserving the organic carbon. Uranium was also incorporated in these organic muds syndepositionally, meaning it was deposited at the same time, rather than being introduced to
13064-543: The fine-grained shales near the middle of the Mahantango Formation are classified by geologists as slope-formers . Marcellus and Mahantango shale beds dipping at 60° to 75° to the west form the west facing slopes of Tonoloway Ridge on the west flank of the Cacapon Mountain anticline in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia . On the eastern limb of this anticline, beds of these shales dipping to
13206-449: The first phase, Southpointe I, was acquired in 1986, with construction beginning in 1993. The location was chosen because of its access to Interstate 79, its proximity to Pittsburgh and low tax rates. By 2013, Southpointe had become filled and the second phase, Southpointe II neared completion, with 800 acres (320 ha) across both. A third phase is planned for the other side of Interstate 79, to be called Cool Valley Industrial Park. It
13348-468: The first sample of uranium metal by heating uranium tetrachloride with potassium . Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by using uranium in 1896. Becquerel made the discovery in Paris by leaving a sample of a uranium salt, K 2 UO 2 (SO 4 ) 2 (potassium uranyl sulfate), on top of an unexposed photographic plate in a drawer and noting that the plate had become "fogged". He determined that
13490-506: The fissile component, and on 29 February 1940, Nier used an instrument he built at the University of Minnesota to separate the world's first uranium-235 sample in the Tate Laboratory. Using Columbia University 's cyclotron , John Dunning confirmed the sample to be the isolated fissile material on 1 March. Further work found that the far more common uranium-238 isotope can be transmuted into plutonium, which, like uranium-235,
13632-611: The food people eat. Worldwide production of uranium in 2021 was 48,332 tonnes , of which 21,819 t (45%) was mined in Kazakhstan . Other important uranium mining countries are Namibia (5,753 t), Canada (4,693 t), Australia (4,192 t), Uzbekistan (3,500 t), and Russia (2,635 t). Uranium ore is mined in several ways: open pit , underground , in-situ leaching , and borehole mining . Low-grade uranium ore mined typically contains 0.01 to 0.25% uranium oxides. Extensive measures must be employed to extract
13774-411: The formation as Eifelian. Although black shale is the dominant lithology , it also contains lighter shales and interbedded limestone layers due to sea level variation during its deposition almost 400 million years ago . The black shale was deposited in relatively deep water devoid of oxygen , and is only sparsely fossiliferous . Most fossils are contained in the limestone members, and
13916-431: The formation later. The organic matter scavenged trace elements from the seawater, including the redox -sensitive elements uranium, rhenium , molybdenum , osmium , chromium , and selenium . The Marcellus was deposited during the development of land plants , when atmospheric oxygen was increasing, resulting in a reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the seawater where it was deposited. Named members of
14058-521: The fossil record in these layers provides important paleontological insights on faunal turnovers . Early in the Acadian orogeny , as the Acadian Mountains were rising up, the black and gray shales of the Hamilton Group began accumulating as erosion of the mountains deposited terrigenous sediments from the land into the sea. The Marcellus Shale was formed from the very first deposits in
14200-515: The gills of filter feeders when suspended; the coarser sediments of the sandstones at the top would have contained less organic matter to support deposit feeders. Below the Solsville, at the base of the Otsego in eastern New York, a coral bed is found; another coral bed can be seen at the top of the Marcellus near Berne, New York . A diverse, eel-like conodont fauna occurs in the limestone of
14342-799: The gray shale at the top of the Oatka Creek thickens gradually to the west, as well as the east, where it divides into the Cardiff member lying above the Chittenango member in central New York. Organic-rich, fissile, sooty black shales make up the Chittenango Member. At the base of the Chittenango, above the Bierne Member shale, lies the Halihan Hill Bed, a highly bioturbated bioclastic limestone. Further east,
14484-491: The high-demand markets along the East Coast of the United States makes it an attractive target for energy development and export . The Marcellus natural gas trend, which encompasses 104,000 square miles and stretches across Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and into southeast Ohio and upstate New York, is the largest source of natural gas in the United States, and production was still growing rapidly in 2013. The Marcellus
14626-555: The homogeneous Cardiff divides into the Bridgewater, Solsville, and Pecksport shale members, from base to top. The Bridgewater is a fissile dark silty shale with relatively rare fossils. A thin concretionary zone lies above, then the Solsville grades from a gray calcareous shale, to sandy siltstones and fine sandstones at the top, with the gray shale of the Pecksport shale and siltstone overlying it. In south central Pennsylvania,
14768-800: The late Middle Ages , pitchblende was extracted from the Habsburg silver mines in Joachimsthal , Bohemia (now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic) in the Ore Mountains , and was used as a coloring agent in the local glassmaking industry. In the early 19th century, the world's only known sources of uranium ore were these mines. The discovery of the element is credited to the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth . While he
14910-555: The location-based name for this, and many of the other group names he published based on exposures in New York, were adopted in the second Pennsylvania survey, and are now widely accepted. In the first New York survey, the Marcellus Shale was placed below the Hamilton Group at the base of the Erie division of the New York system, but this taxonomy is obsolete. In current practice, the Marcellus Shale ;(abbr. Dm or Dms)
15052-601: The metal from its ore. High-grade ores found in Athabasca Basin deposits in Saskatchewan , Canada can contain up to 23% uranium oxides on average. Uranium ore is crushed and rendered into a fine powder and then leached with either an acid or alkali . The leachate is subjected to one of several sequences of precipitation, solvent extraction, and ion exchange. The resulting mixture, called yellowcake , contains at least 75% uranium oxides U 3 O 8 . Yellowcake
15194-491: The military sector is in high-density penetrators. This ammunition consists of depleted uranium (DU) alloyed with 1–2% other elements, such as titanium or molybdenum . At high impact speed, the density, hardness, and pyrophoricity of the projectile enable the destruction of heavily armored targets. Tank armor and other removable vehicle armor can also be hardened with depleted uranium plates. The use of depleted uranium became politically and environmentally contentious after
15336-422: The mineral pitchblende is credited to Martin Heinrich Klaproth , who named the new element after the recently discovered planet Uranus . Eugène-Melchior Péligot was the first person to isolate the metal, and its radioactive properties were discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel . Research by Otto Hahn , Lise Meitner , Enrico Fermi and others, such as J. Robert Oppenheimer starting in 1934 led to its use as
15478-455: The more than 80 different ash falls during the Devonian period, collected in 15 or more beds, has also led to many miscorrelations. From Virginia to New York the Tioga is widely distributed, running across the central and northern parts of the Appalachian basin, an areal extent exceeding 265,000 km (102,000 sq mi). Explosive eruptions associated with the Acadian orogeny originating near present-day central Virginia released
15620-584: The newly discovered metal itself (in fact, that powder was an oxide of uranium ). He named the newly discovered element after the planet Uranus (named after the primordial Greek god of the sky ), which had been discovered eight years earlier by William Herschel . In 1841, Eugène-Melchior Péligot , Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Central School of Arts and Manufactures) in Paris , isolated
15762-473: The northern margin of the formation in central New York. There, the two joint planes in the Marcellus are nearly at right angles, each making cracks in the formation that run perpendicular to the bedding plane, which lies almost level. These joints form smooth nearly vertical cliffs , and the intersecting joint planes form projecting corners in the rock faces. Once exposed, the weathered faces lose most of their organic carbon, turning from black or dark gray to
15904-656: The only commercial reactors capable of using unenriched uranium fuel. Fuel used for United States Navy reactors is typically highly enriched in uranium-235 (the exact values are classified ). In a breeder reactor , uranium-238 can also be converted into plutonium-239 through the following reaction: Before (and, occasionally, after) the discovery of radioactivity, uranium was primarily used in small amounts for yellow glass and pottery glazes, such as uranium glass and in Fiestaware . The discovery and isolation of radium in uranium ore (pitchblende) by Marie Curie sparked
16046-817: The organic-rich deposits. The Marcellus also contains uranium , and the radioactive decay of the uranium-238 ( U) makes it a source rock for radioactive radon gas ( Rn). Measured total organic content of the Marcellus ranges from less than 1% in eastern New York, to over 11% in the central part of the state, and the shale may contain enough carbon to support combustion . The more organic-rich black shales can be bituminous , but are too old to contain bituminous coal formed from land plants. In petroleum geology , these black shales are an important source rock that filled conventional petroleum reservoirs in overlying formations, are an unconventional shale gas reservoir, and are an impermeable seal that traps underlying conventional natural gas reservoirs. To
16188-412: The overlying calcareous Cherry Valley Member. A regional unconformity appears in western New York, as the Union Springs lenses in and out, and then reappears in northwest Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio between the Onondaga and Cherry Valley. In Western and central New York, the uppermost member is the dark grey to black organic-rich Oatka Creek shale. Unlike the other Devonian shales in this region,
16330-793: The period between the American Revolution and the American Civil War . These blast furnaces were important to the economy of the region at the time, but the cold blast stone furnaces typically employed were inefficient, and consumed significant amounts of timber from the nearby hardwood forests, which ultimately led to their demise. A typical furnace used 2,400 kg (5,300 lb) of hematite ore and 7.3 m (200 imp bu) of charcoal to produce 910 kg (2,010 lb) of pig iron, and could produce several thousand pounds per day, which required logging more than 4,000 m (1 acre) of forest daily. The ore from
16472-487: The physical explanation in February 1939 and named the process " nuclear fission ". Soon after, Fermi hypothesized that fission of uranium might release enough neutrons to sustain a fission reaction. Confirmation of this hypothesis came in 1939, and later work found that on average about 2.5 neutrons are released by each fission of uranium-235. Fermi urged Alfred O. C. Nier to separate uranium isotopes for determination of
16614-557: The possibility that these organisms could be used in bioremediation to decontaminate uranium-polluted water. The proteobacterium Geobacter has also been shown to bioremediate uranium in ground water. The mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices increases uranium content in the roots of its symbiotic plant. In nature, uranium(VI) forms highly soluble carbonate complexes at alkaline pH. This leads to an increase in mobility and availability of uranium to groundwater and soil from nuclear wastes which leads to health hazards. However, it
16756-484: The pyrite-carbonate was converted to a usable brown hematite iron ore along the outcrops and near the bedrock surface. The Marcellus iron ore was actively mined in south Central Pennsylvania from its discovery in the late 18th century, until it was supplanted by the rich ore beds of the Iron Range of Minnesota in the early 20th century. The ore was easily located and worked from shallow pits and shafts, but once
16898-454: The reaction between pyrite and limestone particles. Fresh exposures of the pyriteiferous shale may develop the secondary mineralization of orange limonite (Fe O ( OH )·nH 2 O), and the pale yellow efflorescence or bloom of sulfur , associated with acid rock drainage . Pyrite is especially abundant near the base, and the upper contacts of limestones, but framboidal microcrystals and euhedral crystals of pyrite occur throughout
17040-564: The ridge at Walpack Bend in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area . The Minisink is a buried valley where the Delaware flows in a bed of glacial till that buried the eroded Marcellus bedrock during the last glacial period . This buried valley continues along the strike of the Marcellus southwest from the bend through Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania , and northeast from Port Jervis toward
17182-561: The shale. Small conical tentaculitids are commonly found in the Chittenango Member. The Halihan Hill bed contains styliolinids and macrofauna including brachiopods, coral-like bryozoans , small bivalves and gastropods (snails), incorporated after the faunal turnover when Emsian and Eifelian Schoharie/Onondaga fauna were replaced by the Givetian Hamilton fauna. The Solsville member contains well preserved bivalves, gastropods, and brachiopods. These shellfish lived in
17324-550: The shorter half-lives of these parents and their lower production than U and Pu, the parents of thorium: the Cm/ U ratio at the formation of the Solar System was (7.0 ± 1.6) × 10 . Some bacteria, such as Shewanella putrefaciens , Geobacter metallireducens and some strains of Burkholderia fungorum , use uranium for their growth and convert U(VI) to U(IV). Recent research suggests that this pathway includes reduction of
17466-710: The soil. These deposits were also excavated and used for mineral paint during that time. A bed of hematite paint ore is also found almost directly below the Marcellus, but it is actually part of the underlying Oriskany Formation. Uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table . A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons , of which 6 are valence electrons . Uranium radioactively decays , usually by emitting an alpha particle . The half-life of this decay varies between 159,200 and 4.5 billion years for different isotopes , making them useful for dating
17608-509: The soluble U(VI) via an intermediate U(V) pentavalent state. Other organisms, such as the lichen Trapelia involuta or microorganisms such as the bacterium Citrobacter , can absorb concentrations of uranium that are up to 300 times the level of their environment. Citrobacter species absorb uranyl ions when given glycerol phosphate (or other similar organic phosphates). After one day, one gram of bacteria can encrust themselves with nine grams of uranyl phosphate crystals; this creates
17750-509: The stabilization of political and economical turmoil of the early 1990s. For example, in 1993 there were 29 incidents ranking above level 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale , and this number dropped under four per year in 1995–2003. The number of employees receiving annual radiation doses above 20 mSv , which is equivalent to a single full-body CT scan , saw a strong decline around 2000. In November 2015,
17892-464: The state line into extreme western Virginia . The Marcellus bedrock in eastern Pennsylvania extends across the Delaware River into extreme western New Jersey . It also exists in the subsurface of a small portion of Kentucky and Tennessee . Below Lake Erie , it can be found crossing the border into Canada , where it stretches between Port Stanley and Long Point to St. Thomas in southern Ontario . The Marcellus appears in outcrops along
18034-515: The successful development of a new absorbent material dubbed HiCap which performs surface retention of solid or gas molecules, atoms or ions and also effectively removes toxic metals from water, according to results verified by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory . In 2005, ten countries accounted for the majority of the world's concentrated uranium oxides: Canada (27.9%), Australia (22.8%), Kazakhstan (10.5%), Russia (8.0%), Namibia (7.5%), Niger (7.4%), Uzbekistan (5.5%),
18176-500: The term "Marcellus Shale" in his 1839 report titled " Marcellus Shales in Seneca County. " Professor Hall also argued in 1839 against formulating geological names based on observed characteristics that may vary from place to place or need revision in the future, and in favor of location-based nomenclature where "the rock or group will receive its name from the place where it is best developed." His arguments proved persuasive, and
18318-513: The time splits into two smaller nuclei , releasing nuclear binding energy and more neutrons. If too many of these neutrons are absorbed by other uranium-235 nuclei, a nuclear chain reaction occurs that results in a burst of heat or (in some circumstances) an explosion. In a nuclear reactor, such a chain reaction is slowed and controlled by a neutron poison , absorbing some of the free neutrons. Such neutron absorbent materials are often part of reactor control rods (see nuclear reactor physics for
18460-428: The trunks of branchless conifer trees that floated out to sea to be preserved in the black shale. Marcellus fossils include specimens of the large clam-like brachiopod Spinocyrtia. External molds of crinoids , plant-like animals related to starfish also known as "sea lilies," are found in the formation, with the molds partially filled with limonite ; brachiopod and bivalve (clam) molds have also been found in
18602-452: The usable upper deposits were removed, or if a mine shaft entered the bed too far below the surface, only unusable unconverted pyritic deposits were found. Hematite ore was converted to pig iron in charcoal -fired stone blast furnaces that were constructed throughout the Juniata River region near the workable ore deposits from the Marcellus and other formations. Iron products from this area, known as "Juniata Iron," were produced during
18744-727: The use of such munitions by the US, UK and other countries during wars in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans raised questions concerning uranium compounds left in the soil (see Gulf War syndrome ). Depleted uranium is also used as a shielding material in some containers used to store and transport radioactive materials. While the metal itself is radioactive, its high density makes it more effective than lead in halting radiation from strong sources such as radium . Other uses of depleted uranium include counterweights for aircraft control surfaces, as ballast for missile re-entry vehicles and as
18886-528: The use of uranium in manufacturing and metalwork. Tools made with these formulas remained in use for several decades, until the Manhattan Project and the Cold War placed a large demand on uranium for fission research and weapon development. A team led by Enrico Fermi in 1934 found that bombarding uranium with neutrons produces beta rays ( electrons or positrons from the elements produced; see beta particle ). The fission products were at first mistaken for new elements with atomic numbers 93 and 94, which
19028-667: The west the formation may produce liquid petroleum ; further north heating during deeper burial more than 240 million years ago cracked this oil into gas. The Marcellus is found throughout the Allegheny Plateau region of the northern Appalachian Basin of North America. In the United States, the Marcellus Shale runs across the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York , in northern and western Pennsylvania , eastern Ohio , through western Maryland , and throughout most of West Virginia extending across
19170-542: The whole facility (later, the town of Arco became the first in the world to have all its electricity come from nuclear power generated by BORAX-III , another reactor designed and operated by Argonne National Laboratory ). The world's first commercial scale nuclear power station, Obninsk in the Soviet Union , began generation with its reactor AM-1 on 27 June 1954. Other early nuclear power plants were Calder Hall in England, which began generation on 17 October 1956, and
19312-680: The world's largest single uranium deposit is located at the Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia . There is a significant reserve of uranium in Bakouma , a sub-prefecture in the prefecture of Mbomou in the Central African Republic . Some uranium also originates from dismantled nuclear weapons. For example, in 1993–2013 Russia supplied the United States with 15,000 tonnes of low-enriched uranium within
19454-588: Was believed that uranium was relatively rare, and that nuclear proliferation could be avoided by simply buying up all known uranium stocks, but within a decade large deposits of it were discovered in many places around the world. The X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, formerly known as the Clinton Pile and X-10 Pile, was the world's second artificial nuclear reactor (after Enrico Fermi's Chicago Pile) and
19596-401: Was developed by Millcraft Industries 40°16′35″N 80°09′44″W / 40.2765°N 80.1621°W / 40.2765; -80.1621 Marcellus Shale The Marcellus Formation or the Marcellus Shale is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America . Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus , New York , in
19738-556: Was from ex-Soviet sources. From 1993 to 2005 the Material Protection, Control, and Accounting Program , operated by the federal government of the United States , spent about US$ 550 million to help safeguard uranium and plutonium stockpiles in Russia. This money was used for improvements and security enhancements at research and storage facilities. Safety of nuclear facilities in Russia has been significantly improved since
19880-596: Was similar to modern squid, this may have been an area where these Devonian cephalopods reproduced and died. This stratigraphic interval also provides an excellent example of incursion epiboles , which are sudden appearances and disappearances of fossil taxa in relatively thin sections of the rock unit. In the Cherry Valley, the taxa do not reoccur; instead each thin concretionary limestone bed contains different species of goniatites. The Cherry Valley and Union Springs also contain well-preserved anarcestida . On
20022-491: Was the first reactor designed and built for continuous operation. Argonne National Laboratory 's Experimental Breeder Reactor I , located at the Atomic Energy Commission's National Reactor Testing Station near Arco, Idaho , became the first nuclear reactor to create electricity on 20 December 1951. Initially, four 150-watt light bulbs were lit by the reactor, but improvements eventually enabled it to power
20164-454: Was working in his experimental laboratory in Berlin in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound (likely sodium diuranate ) by dissolving pitchblende in nitric acid and neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide . Klaproth assumed the yellow substance was the oxide of a yet-undiscovered element and heated it with charcoal to obtain a black powder, which he thought was
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