Thermal hot spots with temperatures in excess of 700°C existed in the World Trade Center wreckage for months after the collapses.

Ground Zero was a disaster site like no other—with hazards everywhere. Shards of steel lay upon shards of steel, shifting and unstable, uncovering red hot metal beams excavated from deep beneath layers of sub-floors, exposing further dark crevasses. [neha.org] The temperature at the core of "the pile," is near 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to fire officials, who add that the fires are too deep for firefighters to get to. [ABC News, 09/18/2001]

Image source: USGS Spectroscopy Lab "This is how it's been since day one...and this is six weeks later. As we get closer to the center of this it gets hotter and hotter - it's probably 1500 degrees." WMV video download (616kB) Some beams pulled from the wreckage are still red hot more than 7 weeks after the attack, and it is suspected that temperatures beneath the debris pile are well in excess of 1,000°F. [lironews] "Out on the rubble it's still, I believe, 1,100 degrees. The guys boots just melt within a few hours."

WMV video download (130kB)

In perfect conditions the maximum temperature that can be reached by hydrocarbons such as jet fuel burning in air is 1520° F (825° C). When the World Trade Center collapsed the deeply buried fires would have been deprived of oxygen and their temperatures would have significantly decreased.

Why was the temperature at the core of "the pile" nearly 500° F hotter than the maximum burning temperature of jet fuel a full seven days after the collapses? There were no infernos in either of the twin towers before they collapsed, so what caused the hot spots deep in the wreckage?

Dr. Frank Gayle, Metals Expert, on the jet fuel fires which burned in the WTC buildings: "Your gut reaction would be the jet fuel is what made the fire so very intense, a lot of people figured that's what melted the steel. Indeed it didn't, the steel did not melt." [Firehouse.com] Molten steel did not exist in the WTC buildings prior to the collapses, but... Molten steel was found "three, four, and five weeks later, when the rubble was being removed [from WTCs 1 & 2]," Loizeaux said. He said molten steel was also found at 7 WTC, which collapsed mysteriously in the late afternoon. [American Free Press]

What caused the steel to melt? How did it stay molten for months after the collapses?

What you had were large columns of steel that were just stuck into massive amounts of molten steel and other metals, that had just fused together from the heat and bonded together from the strength of the collapse. [theeagle.com] One of the more unusual artefacts to emerge from the rubble is this rock-like object which has come to be known as "the meteorite". "This is a fused element of molten steel and concrete all fused by the heat into one single element." WMV video download (376kB)

Conventional fires cannot account for the above, but thermite can.

A thermite reaction generates extraordinarily high temperatures (>2500° C) and provides a credible explanation for the fires, hot spots and molten steel (a by-product of the thermite reaction) found in the collapsed buildings.

Seeming molten material recorded by Alan Chin (left), in contrast with apparent flaming debris (right), both recorded at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001. "That photo was made approximately 20 minutes after the second, that is to say, after both, towers were down. That's why the sky and air are so dark." [911blogger.com]

The documentary "9/11 Science & Conspiracy" by National Geographic contends thermite could not have contributed to the the collapse of the towers, but the following video demonstrates it could have easily been achieved with the correct setup.

"Anyone who has ever watched a building being demolished on purpose knows that if you're going to do this you have to get at the under-infrastructure of the building to bring it down" Peter Jennings, ABC News 9/11/2001. WMV video download (171kB).

"If I were to bring the towers down, I would put explosives in the basement to get the weight of the building to help collapse the structure" Mark Loizeaux, president,

Controlled Demolition Inc.

The core of WTC 1 failed below the third floor, and explosions and dense white smoke was documented at the towers' base prior to the collapse of both WTC 2 and WTC 1.

Thermite gives off dense white smoke with very little odor.

Video of smoke rising from the World Trade Center wreckage.

WMV video download (121kB)

The smoke rising from the wreckage should have been black, not white.

High energy ultraviolet radiation was present in the WTC wreckage. This should not have been there.

All of the above facts point to thermite being a major contributor in the collapses at the World Trade Center.