Abstract
IN a recent communication, Wasserstein1 has suggested a new method of age determinations on uraninites by means of X-ray techniques. This thesis is that radioactive decay results in the replacement of the tetravalent uranium ion by the smaller lead ion, the calculated shrinkage in cube edge due to this process being approximately 0.004 A. per hundred million years. Wasserstein classifies uraninites into three groups: γ(U4O7, type), α(UO2 type) and β(U3O7 type), and suggests that thorianites, which resemble γ-uraninites in their properties, may have Th4O7 as their prototype.
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Wasserstein, B., Nature, 174, 1004 (1954).
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See, Seaborg, G. T., and Katz, J. J., “The Actinide Elements”, NNES, Div. IV, 14 A, 144, 175.
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HOEKSTRA, H., KATZ, J. Age of Uraninites from Crystallographic Data. Nature 175, 605 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/175605a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/175605a0
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