The Disposal of Sodium, 1947 Washington State
Why Chemistry Stack Exchange recommends it
Chemistry Stack Exchange users link it as a vivid real-world example of how violently sodium metal reacts with water.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2012 to 2019.
What it is
A 1m45s newsreel clip from January 1947 showing the US Army disposing of drums of metallic sodium by rolling them onto frozen Lake Lenore in Washington State and machine-gunning them. The reaction with water produced huge hydrogen explosions and a mist of sodium hydroxide. The uploader adds historical context from the Internet Archive newsreel and a 1991 ecology book.
Cited in 1 Wikipedia article, including Lake Lenore (Washington).
What people said
Cites Chris · 2012-05 · Chemistry Stack Exchange · on “What dictates the lifetime of a solvated electron in a given solvent?”
For those who have never had the pleasure of personally doing this, see this [LINK] video. It has been known since 1807 that dissolving sodium in liquid ammonia results in a beautiful color. It was originally thought the color was due to some familiar complex instead of a solvated electron. A similar phenomenon happens with other alkali metals in ammonia. Research in the field says that it takes, at least, forty some ammonia molecules to solvate a given electron. Metstable cavities form and their stability could depend highly on electrostatic interactions to solvate our electron. Ammonia will slowly react by evolving hydrogen gas, $$\ce{2 NH3 + 2 e- -> H2 + 2 NH2-}$$ Differences in solvent c
Cites Daniel · 2013-09 · Chemistry Stack Exchange · on “Why is it not dangerous to dissolve NaCl?”
$$\ce{H2O~(l) + NaCl~(s) ->[\Delta] Na+~(aq) + Cl^{-}~(aq)}$$ When table salt is placed in water, it dissolves due to the polarity of water molecules. When solvation takes place, negatively polar sides of water molecules attach to $\ce{Na+}$ ions, and positively polar sides of water molecules attach to $\ce{Cl-}$ ions. The ions are then carried away by water molecules through diffusion. Since the sodium is now isolated from the chlorine, what keeps it from violently exploding with water [this video] in the following chemical reaction? $$\ce{2Na + 2H2O -> 2 NaOH + H2}$$ Also, since chlorine is poisonous, wouldn't that make drinking salted water extremely lethal?
Cites Nicolau Saker Neto · 2015-05 · Chemistry Stack Exchange · on “Is there a chemical reaction which could give off enough heat underwater to cook something?”
Interesting prompt! There are plenty of reactions which could be performed underwater to release a large amount of energy. In fact, many substances react vigorously with water itself. You may have heard about how alkali metals such as sodium are not compatible with water, and there's a good reason for it! [this video] Explosive reactions aren't particularly suited to cooking food, though, and a sustained flame would be much more useful. Interestingly enough, there was legitimate research performed on making underwater flames, for a very specific purpose: the Olympic torch! For the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia, during the classic Olympic torch relay [LINK] before the start of the games, the t
Cites Ed V · 2019-08 · Chemistry Stack Exchange · on “Would sodium metal react differently with aqueous solutions than with pure water?”
This video shows what happened in 1947 when the U.S. Army dumped 20 thousand pounds of sodium (in 3500 pound containers) into frozen alkaline Lake Lenore, WA, USA: [this video] . Not sure how alkaline the lake was prior to the sodium addition.