Trinitite, also known as atomsite or Alamogordo glass,[1][2] is the glassy residue left on the desert floor after the plutonium-based Trinity nuclear bomb test on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The glass is primarily composed of arkosic sand composed of quartz grains and feldspar (both microcline and smaller amount of plagioclase with small amount of calcite, hornblende and augite in a matrix of sandy clay)[3] that was melted by the atomic blast. It was first academically described in American Mineralogist in 1948.[4]
It is usually a light green, although red trinitite was also found in one section of the blast site,[4] and rare pieces of black trinitite formed.[5] It is mildly radioactive but safe to handle.[6][7][8] Pieces of the material remain at the Trinity site as of 2018,[9] although most of it was bulldozed and buried by the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1953.[10]
- ^ Giaimo, Cara (June 30, 2017). "The Long, Weird Half-Life of Trinitite". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
smithmagwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Ross, Clarence S. (1948). "Optical properties of glass from Alamogordo, New Mexico". American Mineralogist: Journal of Earth and Planetary Materials. 33 (5–6): 360–362.
- ^ a b Eby, G. Nelson; Charnley, Norman; Pirrie, Duncan; Hermes, Robert; Smoliga, John; Rollinson, Gavyn (2015). "Trinitite redux: Mineralogy and petrology" (PDF). American Mineralogist. 100 (2–3): 427–441. Bibcode:2015AmMin.100..427E. doi:10.2138/am-2015-4921. S2CID 130527683.
- ^ Williams, Katie (November 2, 2017). "The beauty created by the 'Destroyer of Worlds'". The University of New Mexico Newsroom. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
- ^ Kolb, W. M., and Carlock, P. G. (1999). Trinitite: The Atomic Age Mineral.
- ^ "Trinitite". ORAU Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity. Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
- ^ Analyzing Trinitite, Hunter Scott.
- ^ Burge, David (April 4, 2018). "Have a blast: Trinity Site allows public to visit where first atomic bomb was tested". The El Paso Times. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
- ^ Carroll L. Tyler, AEC letter to the Governor of New Mexico, July 16, 1953. Nuclear Testing Archive, NV0103562: https://www.osti.gov/opennet/detail?osti-id=16166107