Trinitite

Trinitite

Trinitite, also known as atomsite or Alamogordo glass, 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) that was melted by the atomic blast. It was first academically described in American Mineralogist in 1948.It is usually a light green, although red trinitite was also found in one section of the blast site, and rare pieces of black trinitite also formed. It is mildly radioactive but safe to handle.Pieces of the material may still be found at the Trinity site as of 2018, although most of it was bulldozed and buried by the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1953.

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