"In the irradiated crater it left behind, scientists discovered a glassy remnant later dubbed trinitite, a byproduct of New Mexico desert sand and leftover test site like a tower and coaxial cables, fused together and transformed by the unimaginable heat and force of the blast. Most of the stuff is a greyish-green material, but a rare variation, which takes the form of a red crystal, has long been a source of fascination due to its nightmarish visage, which features bulbous protrusions vaguely evoking the horror of exposed flesh."
"Now, a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used CT and X-ray scans to probe the composition of the mysterious crystal. In the process, they found something bizarre: a material called a clathrate, which traps atoms inside its lattice and which had never previously been observed in the natural world or even the wreckage of a nuclear explosion."
""It's a completely new kind of clathrate crystal - something never seen before in nature or in the products of a nuclear explosion," University of Florence geologist Luca Bindi, who co-authored the new paper, told Scientific American."
"The research underscores the radioactive nightmare of nuclear warfare, which creates conditions so extreme that they defy comprehension even after nearly a century. And if you were thinking of heading out to the New Mexico desert to find some for yourself, tread carefully - it's illegal to gather the stuff."
The 1945 Trinity nuclear test produced trinitite, a fused glassy remnant formed from New Mexico desert sand and leftover test materials under extreme heat and force. Most trinitite appears greyish-green, while a rare red crystal variation has long drawn attention for its unsettling appearance. A new study used CT and X-ray scans to analyze the red crystal’s composition and identified a clathrate material that traps atoms inside its lattice. This clathrate had not been observed in nature or in the wreckage of nuclear explosions. The findings emphasize how nuclear warfare creates extreme conditions that remain difficult to understand even decades later, and collecting the material is illegal.
Read at Futurism
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