1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff. 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,639 Speaker 1: Lorn Bogel bomb here. It was theoretical physicist J. Robert 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,400 Speaker 1: Oppenheimer who chose the code named Trinity for his trial 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: run of atomic weapons, though he could never remember why. 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 1: As a participant in the Manhattan Project, he oversaw the 6 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:22,640 Speaker 1: construction of four atomic bombs. By the spring of nineteen 7 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:24,880 Speaker 1: forty five, the U. S Military had started looking for 8 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: a place to test one of them. Out Sites in California, Colorado, 9 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:30,760 Speaker 1: and Texas were considered before the Pentagon chose a patch 10 00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:32,680 Speaker 1: of terrain at the White Sands Missile Range in New 11 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: Mexico is the site of the Trinity Project. On July sixteenth, 12 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: ninety five, at five twenty nine a m Mountain time, 13 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: a plutonium bomb known simply as the Gadget was detonated 14 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:45,280 Speaker 1: at the site. This marked the first deployment of an 15 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: atomic weapon in recorded history. Within a month, the United 16 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: States used two atomic bombs to level both Hiroshima and 17 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 1: Nagasaki in Japan, helping bring World War two to an 18 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,680 Speaker 1: end and sending a very clear and violent message to 19 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 1: other world powers. So began the atomic Age. Back in 20 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: New Mexico, scientists discovered that the explosion that had started 21 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:07,679 Speaker 1: at all left something behind. Nuclear physicist Herbert L. Anderson 22 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,839 Speaker 1: and his driver inspected the Trinity blast site shortly after 23 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:13,600 Speaker 1: the bomb detonated. Over the radio, he announced that the 24 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: area had turned all green. A layer of small, glassy 25 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,199 Speaker 1: beads covered the crater. Most were all of green in color, 26 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 1: though some samples were black or reddish in hue. The 27 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: substance is now known as trinotite. Plenty of trinotite was 28 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,559 Speaker 1: still there in September nineteen forty five, when a Time 29 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:32,480 Speaker 1: magazine report described the crater as a lake of green 30 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: jade shaped like a splashy star. Physicists realized that this 31 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: trinotite was desert sand that had melted down during the 32 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: blast and then resolidified. Our understanding of trinotite has changed recently. 33 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 1: At first, scientists assumed that the grains of sand that 34 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 1: turned into this material had melted at ground level, but 35 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,400 Speaker 1: a twenty ten study found that the sand was actually 36 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:54,680 Speaker 1: pulled up into the heart of the explosion, where high 37 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 1: temperatures liquefied it. The stuff later rained down, cooled, and 38 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: turned solid. There are no laws against buying or selling 39 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:04,480 Speaker 1: trinotite samples that have already been collected, but it's now 40 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: illegal to remove this substance from the blast field. You 41 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: will find much of it on site anyway. America's Atomic 42 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: Energy Commission bulldozed over the nuclear test site in nineteen 43 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: fifty three. In the process, a bounty of trinotite was 44 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,639 Speaker 1: buried underground, and buyers beware, there's a lot of phony 45 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: trinotite on the market. Trinotite is indeed radioactive, however, it's 46 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: been deemed basically safe by a health physics survey, so 47 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,960 Speaker 1: the glassy beads were snatched up in huge quantities by 48 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: souvenir hungry visitors to the site. Jewelry created with trinotite 49 00:02:33,639 --> 00:02:36,800 Speaker 1: was even made for the purpose of propaganda. These kinds 50 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: of glassy residues are left behind whenever nuclear weapons go 51 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:42,080 Speaker 1: off at the ground level. They've been recovered in the 52 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 1: wake of atomic tests over such places as the Algerian Desert, 53 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,520 Speaker 1: but the name trinotite is typically reserved for specimens found 54 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 1: at the original Trinity site at the White Sands Missile Range. 55 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:54,079 Speaker 1: Some scientists prefer to call material found in other parts 56 00:02:54,080 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: of the world atom site Today's episode was written by 57 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on 58 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: this and lots of other basically safe topics, visit our 59 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:20,519 Speaker 1: home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.