Trinitite

File:Trinitite.JPG

Sample of Trinitite.

Trinitite, also known as Atomite or Alamogordo Glass, is the name given to the glassy residue left on the desert floor after the Trinity test. It is primarily composed of silica that was melted by the atomic blast. It is usually a light green color; although in some cases, it is other colors. It is mildly radioactive, but is safe to handle for limited periods of time.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, samples were gathered and sold to mineral collectors as a novelty. A few traces of the material can be found at the Trinity Site today, though most of it was bulldozed and buried by the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1952. It is now illegal to take the remaining material from the site. However, material that was taken prior to this prohibition is still in the hands of collectors, and can be found for sale on the internet.

In Fall 2005 it was theorized by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists Robert Hermes and William Strickfaden that the mineral was formed not simply by sand which was exposed to the fireball, but the sand which was drawn up inside the fireball itself and then rained down in a liquid form.

Levels of radioactivity in the trinity glass from two different samples as measured by gamma spectrscopy on lumps of the glass, as reported by P.P. Parekh, T.M. Semkow, M.A. Torres, D.K. Haines, J.M. Cooper, P.M. Rosenberg and M.E. Kitto, Jorunal of Environmental Radioactivity, 2006, 85, 103-120

The name Trinitite is occasionally broadly applied to all glassy residues of nuclear bomb testing, not just the Trinity test.

See also

• desert glass
• glass parking lot

External links

• Trinitite information at About.com
• Trinitite info and photos
• Radiographic spectrum of Trinitite
• "New Theory on the Formation of Trinitite"