A corner in a face, sure. The other corners were apparently also undergoing thermitic reactions, but only white smoke was visible, not molten metal.
From 9/11 Research's
Molten Metal article:
In the first few weeks, sometimes when a worker would pull a steel beam from the wreckage, the end of the beam would be dripping molten steel 3
9/11 Research's article
Aluminothermic Residues quotes Steven Jones in his peer reviewed paper
Revisiting 9/11/2001 --Applying The Scientific Method, Journal of 9/11 Studies, 5/27/07:
The iron-rich component of the WTC dust sample was analyzed in some detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (X-EDS). Using the scanning electron microscope, we found that much of the iron-rich dust was in fact composed of roughly spherical particles * microspheres. The presence of metallic microspheres implies that these metals were once molten, so that surface tension pulled the droplets into a roughly spherical shape. Then the molten droplets solidified in air, preserving the information that they were once molten in the spherical shape as well as chemical information.
Iron melts at 1538ºC, so the presence of these numerous iron-rich spheres implies a very high temperature. Too hot in fact for the fires in the WTC buildings since jet fuel (kerosene), paper and wood furniture * and other office materials * cannot reach the temperatures needed to melt iron or steel.
9/11 Research is fully aware of that and makes a pointed remark concerning this very issue at the beginning of its article
Aluminothermic Residues:
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Scientific studies of dust fallout of the World Trade Center destruction conducted within months of the attack contain a wealth of data about the dust's distribution, physical forms, and chemical composition. Although this data raised a number of interesting questions -- such as how the dust came to contain high levels of iron, aluminum, sulfur, and barium -- it remained mostly unexamined for years. Even FEMA's disclosure of profound
corrosive sulfidation of steel members failed to elicit follow-up studies by official bodies, with NIST
avoiding the subject entirely.
It would take a scientist working without the benefit of a government stipend to provide a
plausible hypothesis answering questions about the dust and corroded steel: Steven E. Jones.
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Can you refresh my memory on the interpretation of the USGS on this? In any case, I found this choice passage in the
USGS survey:
The dust and girder coating samples are substantially more variable in their trace element compositions than in their major element compositions. In most dust samples, zinc is the predominant trace metal, with concentrations as high as 3000 parts per million. With the exception of one sample that is high in barium (WTC01-16), the trace metals barium, lead, copper, and chromium are present in concentrations of hundreds of parts per million.
Steven Jones makes the importance of this more clear in his analysis of the WTC dust:
DR. STEVEN JONES- 9/11- THERMATE EVIDENCE PART 5 From what I've heard, barium is a rather toxic element and shouldn't be in the WTC buildings. -However-,
thermate is 29% barium nitrate.