A group of scientists found a crystal never before seen in nature within remnants of red trinitite, the material formed after the first nuclear explosion conducted in 1945 during the Trinity test in the United States.
The discovery was published in the scientific journal PNAS and brought attention back to one of the most shocking episodes of the 20th century: the detonation of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert.
What is trinitite and how was it formed
Trinitite is a radioactive glass that was generated after the nuclear explosion on July 16, 1945, when the extreme heat melted the desert sand around the test site.
The detonation released energy equivalent to about 25,000 tons of TNT and reached temperatures exceeding 1,500 degrees Celsius.
As a result, the sand and nearby metal structures were completely melted and fused into a glassy material of green and red color.
The crystal found does not exist anywhere else
The researchers analyzed a variant known as “oxblood trinitite”, a reddish version generated by metallic remnants from the test tower and equipment destroyed during the explosion.
Within those samples, they found a crystal of the clathrate type, an extremely rare structure where certain atoms form a kind of “cage” that encloses other elements.
