[Split]Debris piles at GZ- split from: UL Moves For Sanctions Against Morgan Reynold

Wouldn't a DEW powerful enough to vaporize steel simply disintegrate the buildings in a blinding flash? The effects of a DEW this powerful would just be crazy spectacular. As such what's this mundane looking collapse thing all about if that's the case?
 
How about the second image in post 444?


That would be difficult without the raw data. Since the photo is taken from a viewpoint that isn't perpendicular to the ground, I would have to reproduce the angle with the LIDAR data. I suppose I could interpolate the data points from the LIDAR TIN to corresponding building faces, but it would not be very accurate partially due to the parallax in the photo in post 444.

If CARSI allows sharing of the LIDAR data, it would very easy to make images from any perspective at any resolution (and add more elevation ranges), but without it, it would be a kludge at best.
 
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I'm not sure, but I think Ben was referring to overlaying the false color over a post-collapse overhead view of the site.

Along similar lines, CARSI also has another LIDAR map of the site in July 2000, aligned the same and colored to the same vertical scale as the 9/19/01 LIDAR map I've been citing (though it appears somewhat coarser-grained, which makes sense if its data comes from part of a larger earlier survey rather than one focused specifically on the Ground Zero area). Makes it easy (albeit depressing) to do a side-by-side comparison.

Thanks for the additional information and insight, Hokulele. It's really cool that you know this stuff -- and that I'm learning things from what seemed like the least promising thread ever.

Respectfully,
Myriad
 
Although the key is illegible, I will take your word that the color gradations go from -25 to 100 and that there are 5 colors. OK so far? So that means each color has an undifferentiated range of 25 ft, still OK? That means, then, that simply within each color, your chart measurement has a possible error of from 1 to 25 ft.

Note, if the entire chart is only showing 125 ft, of which only 100 is above 0, the chart contains a built in error rate of 25%

That is useless information, in my view.

Then you have your view of measurement errors precisely backwards. Useless information is information whose margin of error is unknown. In this case, where the margin of error is precisely known, the information is extremely useful. For example, the colour which characterises the majority of the regions within the footprint of the towers is given on the scale as representing a height of 75-100 feet (a scale which, incidentally, I am just about able to read from the key as reproduced in the posts; have you considered either getting a better monitor or seeing an optician?). This means that I can be certain that no point in that region is lower than 75 feet or higher than 100 feet. While this may not be sufficient information to determine the height of any point in that region to a precision of 1 foot, it is ample information to refute the claim that the entire area was at an elevation of less than 12 feet, which is implicit in your claim that the rubble pile was only one storey high.

What I find quite bizarre is that all this is blatantly obvious to anyone looking at the diagram. What do you hope to achieve by asserting that it isn't?

Dave
 
With respect to damage to underground transit facilities at the WTC I found two informative articles HERE that give brief outlines of the subject. The articles are based on reports by Mysore L. Nagaraja (Chief Engineer for New York City Transit) The articles are dated late September 2001.

Below are a few quotes taken from the articles. The veracity of the reports should be beyond doubt so bang goes jammonius' nonsense re: "no underground damage"



New York City Transit officials have determined that damage to the No. 1 and 9 subway tunnels and stations in Lower Manhattan is so extensive that the line will need to be completely rebuilt for more than a mile.

About 575 feet of the line is totally collapsed, in two separate locations, but subway engineers who have explored the tunnels say that hundreds more feet are structurally unsound,

Ferrelli, [the chief of infrastructure for the subways] who walked through the damaged stations and tunnels on the 1 and 9 line last Friday, said so much of the line collapsed because the top of the 2 World Trade tower fell more to the side than the other tower. The debris crashed directly above the tunnel that ran along the northeast corner of the building, crushing a section about 375 feet long.

The other area of total collapse is a stretch of about 200 feet north of the Cortlandt Street station, where the tunnel ran alongside the eastern side of 7 World Trade Center, the 48-story building that fell after the two trade center towers did.

The MTA's chief engineer, Mysore Nagaraja, in a report to an MTA committee, said the tunnels that serve the No. 1 and No. 9 lines that run beneath the World Trade Center and the infrastructure supporting them took heavy damage.

"Eighteen hundred linear feet of the tunnel damaged or filled with rubble, Cortland Street station probably destroyed," read the caption on a slide shown by the chief engineer at a meeting of the Capital Program Committee.


BV
 
I cross-posted with SpitfireIX. I based my +/- 3 inch figure on information on a commercial LIDAR site that appeared to be dated 2001, and I also miscalculated (interpreting a conversion result of 6 inches as +/- 3 when it should have been +/- 6). I could edit my post but I'll let the error stand and correct it here. +/- 6 inches vertical accuracy matches what the PoB article describes as typical "published accuracy specifications" but their more thorough analysis is worth considering.

Pending further information from CARSI, I'll accept Spitfire's +/- 2 feet figure, though I will point out that the Ground Zero survey was done specifically to cover a relatively small area and therefore could have been done from a lower altitude, reducing some of the error sources the article describes.

Respectfully,
Myriad


I probably should have elaborated on what the PoB article actually says; as you note, most of the data will fall within a much narrower range than ± 2 ft; however, there may be a relatively small number of outliers, but even the outliers should be at worst within ± 2 ft. I was merely taking the worst case, which is still good enough to demonstrate that the rubble piles were at least 71 feet above grade for WTC 2, and 96 feet above grade for WTC 1.
 
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With respect to damage to underground transit facilities at the WTC I found two informative articles HERE that give brief outlines of the subject. The articles are based on reports by Mysore L. Nagaraja (Chief Engineer for New York City Transit) The articles are dated late September 2001.

Below are a few quotes taken from the articles. The veracity of the reports should be beyond doubt so bang goes jammonius' nonsense re: "no underground damage"














BV


Greetings BV, and thanks for the helpful info.

Articles dated from late September 2001 that contain an analysis of how the towers fell would appear to me to be quite arbitrary as at that early date, not much actual assessment of that type had been done.

This statement is intriguing, to be sure, but it is highly imprecise as to where in Lower Manhttan this section is located:

"New York City Transit officials have determined that damage to the No. 1 and 9 subway tunnels and stations in Lower Manhattan is so extensive that the line will need to be completely rebuilt for more than a mile."

Equally imprecise and meaningless is this:

"About 575 feet of the line is totally collapsed, in two separate locations, but subway engineers who have explored the tunnels say that hundreds more feet are structurally unsound,"

And where might that be; and what, if anything, did the destruction of the WTC complex have to do with it? As of late September, 2001, when the article was written, I doubt enough analysis could have been completed for purposes of any sort of rational cause and effect assessment.

Next:

"Ferrelli, [the chief of infrastructure for the subways] who walked through the damaged stations and tunnels on the 1 and 9 line last Friday, said so much of the line collapsed because the top of the 2 World Trade tower fell more to the side than the other tower. The debris crashed directly above the tunnel that ran along the northeast corner of the building, crushing a section about 375 feet long."

This is a highly interesting commentary, containing a number of incongruities. If he was able to walk through, how collapsed could it have been? In fact, read carefully, it does not appear there was any debris in the tunnel.

The man literally says: "... the top of the 2 World Trade tower fell more to the side than the other tower. The debris CRASHED DIRECTLY ABOVE THE TUNNEL that ran along the northeast corner of the building, crushing a section about 375 feet long." (capital letters added)

Thanks for confirming that the debris did not reach the tunnel. This is what I have been saying. There was no debris underground. Your own quotation specifically says so.

Your next segment attributes damage to WTC 7's destruction and so is not directly relevant to the main episode of destruction and/or GZ proper.

Finally, you reference this:

"The MTA's chief engineer, Mysore Nagaraja, in a report to an MTA committee, said the tunnels that serve the No. 1 and No. 9 lines that run beneath the World Trade Center and the infrastructure supporting them took heavy damage.

"Eighteen hundred linear feet of the tunnel damaged or filled with rubble, Cortland Street station probably destroyed," read the caption on a slide shown by the chief engineer at a meeting of the Capital Program Committee."

We need a map to locate that station. Cortland Street itself appears to end at Church Street having run from east to west to that point. That places it well outside the footprint of WTC 2. I think we need more info about where that 1800' segment actually was located. You agree?
 
Direct comparison?

13012484ff412c0bce.jpg


Image321.gif


Solid red box locates this:

Image300.jpg


The photo is from 9/18/01

Image325.gif


The 9/18 photo is located in zone 2, above. Overhanging debris was removed before ladder was lowered into hole 2 as per Dr. Wood's analysis found at

http://drjudywood.co.uk/articles/DEW/StarWarsBeam4.html
 
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Just a quick note to express appreciation for the LIDAR discussion that is taking place. I think it might now be possible to correlate the Lidar image with some photographs to see how they fit together and add to the knowledge base we can use for discussing the flatness or height of GZ.
 
Although the key is illegible, I will take your word that the color gradations go from -25 to 100 and that there are 5 colors. OK so far? So that means each color has an undifferentiated range of 25 ft, still OK? That means, then, that simply within each color, your chart measurement has a possible error of from 1 to 25 ft.

Note, if the entire chart is only showing 125 ft, of which only 100 is above 0, the chart contains a built in error rate of 25%

That is useless information, in my view.

What those of you who need this chart to work for you might do, is correlate specific areas of it to some of the better photographs posted on earlier pages of this thread. This assumes, of course, that there exists a genuine interest in knowing the height of relevant areas of GZ.

Perhaps all of us can step back here and ask ourselves whether, within this thread, there exists sufficient data to advance the state of knowledge on the issue of GZ's height?

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/13012484ff412c0bce.jpg[/qimg]

Yes if you step back it is clear there exists more than sufficient data to advance the state of knowledge that the debris pile was more than one story high and that much of the debris pile is in the lower levels.
No person with a modicum of understanding and interest in the truth could interpret the graph data the way you do.
you show pictures of stores that were not directly under the towers to advance your ridiculous claim that the basement levels were not filled with debris. Are we to believe the debris stopped once it reached the basement levels. Why would more than a hundred thousand tons of debris stop after it had fallen so far. I know it had been dustified.

You expect people to believe material was trucked in and "sprinkled on the pile". no one noticed.
 
This statement is intriguing, to be sure, but it is highly imprecise as to where in Lower Manhttan this section is located:

"New York City Transit officials have determined that damage to the No. 1 and 9 subway tunnels and stations in Lower Manhattan is so extensive that the line will need to be completely rebuilt for more than a mile."

Imprecise it may be but this statement alone gives anyone with a modicum of reasonable intelligence basic general information as to the extent of underground damage by falling debris. Debris which penetrated and crushed large swathes of the transit system there on 9/11. This was an initial investigation by a highly qualified experienced engineer. Here is a man describing extensive damage, no amount of wriggling here will get you off the hook.

You mention that some of the damage was caused by the collapse of WTC7 yet you have already stated in this thread that that building was brought down by similar means to the main towers. Please explain why damage under WTC7 is therefore irrelevant to this discussion?

You accused me of nit-picking in an earlier post I suggest you do more nit-picking here than a troop of scabby chimps.

BV
 
Imprecise it may be but this statement alone gives anyone with a modicum of reasonable intelligence basic general information as to the extent of underground damage by falling debris. Debris which penetrated and crushed large swathes of the transit system there on 9/11. This was an initial investigation by a highly qualified experienced engineer. Here is a man describing extensive damage, no amount of wriggling here will get you off the hook.

You mention that some of the damage was caused by the collapse of WTC7 yet you have already stated in this thread that that building was brought down by similar means to the main towers. Please explain why damage under WTC7 is therefore irrelevant to this discussion?

You accused me of nit-picking in an earlier post I suggest you do more nit-picking here than a troop of scabby chimps.

BV


you do more nit-picking here than a troop of scabby chimps.

Good one:)

Your engineer did not advance your claims one bit. In fact, he supported my contention there was no underground debris. At most, he's asserting a "compacting" or crush claim, not a debris claim

Remember, the issue here is measurement of the height of GZ with the assertion having been made by some that the overall relatively low height of GZ could be explained away, at least in part, by assumptions about the underground being filled with debris to the tune or level of several floors or storeys -- generallly 5-6 were being claimed. However, your own witness is not giving any accredation to that claim. He plainly says there was no debris by attesting that the debris must have been on top and that either its weight, or perhaps, the seismic effect, caused damage to the tunnel in certain relatively isolated areas. We have to conclude the damage was isolated because he walked through the tunnels.

That is what reasonably flows from what your own source specifically stated.
 
I apologize if this picture's already been posted, but...

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/200109205c_hr.jpg

Note the size of the rescue workers on the foreground pile (on the right-hand side). Compare to the background pile (also visible on the right-hand side).

ETA: Here's a somewhat better shot of the background pile from the above image: http://iridescent-designs.co.uk/images/wtc/debris-pile-shows-trussbolt-failiures2.jpg

There's an even better one out there that I'm still looking for.

ETA #2: here it is: http://www.911familiesforamerica.or...w-from-the-roof-of-tenhouse-late-sep-2001.jpg
 
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Just a quick note to express appreciation for the LIDAR discussion that is taking place. I think it might now be possible to correlate the Lidar image with some photographs to see how they fit together and add to the knowledge base we can use for discussing the flatness or height of GZ.


I am back on my work computer and will try to get some overlays put together today. If anyone has any aerial or satellite imagery they want inluded, let me know. I need things that are directly overhead from the site (if it is on or close to Sept 19, all the better). I have a pre-Sept. map of the WTC site I am using as a reference, and one aerial shot that is pretty good, although I haven't been able to find a date reference for it. I hope to sneak this in between "real" work, and should be able to post something tonight or early tomorrow. Thanks to all for any help and your patience.
 
I am back on my work computer and will try to get some overlays put together today. If anyone has any aerial or satellite imagery they want inluded, let me know. I need things that are directly overhead from the site (if it is on or close to Sept 19, all the better). I have a pre-Sept. map of the WTC site I am using as a reference, and one aerial shot that is pretty good, although I haven't been able to find a date reference for it. I hope to sneak this in between "real" work, and should be able to post something tonight or early tomorrow. Thanks to all for any help and your patience.

Thanks for doing it! That's totally awesome that you're taking the trouble.
 
I like things that make it look like I'm getting "real" work done. :)


I guess all those volcanos keep surveyors and cartographers pretty busy out there. Something like this:

TODAY'S TASKS
1. Erase two islands from map that collapsed into sea yesterday afternoon.
2. Add island that arose out of sea last night.
3. Redraw ferry routes to cancel service to the two islands that collapsed into sea and add a stop at island that arose out of sea.
4. Erase highway segments cut by morning's lava flows.
5. Plan new highway route to circumvent lava flows and all other threatened/unstable land masses, perhaps via central Asia.
6. Change map location of three towns moved out of the way of lava flow.
7. Redraw coastline to add new land from lava flow.
8. Re-redraw same coastline again to remove new land washed away by freakish humongous waves while you were doing task 7.

:D

ETA: I forgot:

9. "Did someone say there's freakish humongous waves crashing onto razor-sharp jagged smoldering lava? SURF'S UP!!!"

Respectfully,
Myriad
 
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