Earth's oldest nuclear reactor dates back not to 1942 but to nearly 2 billion years ago. As, at a distinct location in what is now the nation of Gabon, an unusual abundance of uranium ore allowed for natural fission and then a nuclear chain reaction to take place. Today's video will discuss what I consider to be the world's strangest geologic oddity, which I analyze through my expertise as a geologist. This is the story of the Oklo Mine deposit. Thumbnail Photo Credit: This work "UraniumDepositJSJ6", is a derivative of a photo (resized, cropped, image color saturation increased, text overlay, overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border & the GeologyHub logo)) from "Uranium roll front & molybdenum roll front hosted in Dakota Sandstone (Turkey Creek Road roadcut, Dakota Hogback, near Denver, Colorado, USA) 16", by: James St. John, jsjgeology, 2007, Posted on Flickr, Flickr account link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/, Photo link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/52687474672/, CC BY 2.0. "UraniumDepositJSJ6" is used & licensed under CC BY 2.0 by Youtube.com/GeologyHub Note: This video's thumbnail image shows a location in Colorado and not the Oklo Mine in Gabon. If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: http://patreon.com/geologyhub) (YouTube membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeGh5VML5XPr5jYnzh3J6g/join) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: http://prospectingarizona.etsy.com) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: http://geologyhub.etsy.com) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image): Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode CC BY SA 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode Sources/Citations: [1] U.S. Geological Survey [2] U.S. Department of Energy [3] Mindat, https://www.mindat.org/ Note. All mineral data, including birefringence and crystal structures, and the number of isometric minerals were cited from Mindat.org [4] Mindat, "Uraninite", https://www.mindat.org/min-4102.html [5] Mindat, "Tyuyamunite", https://www.mindat.org/min-4072.html 0:00 2 Billion Year Old Nuclear Reactor 1:34 Isotope Concentrations 4:11 The Reaction Cycle 4:58 Amount of Energy Produced