Trinity site, Tularosa Basin,
Alamogordo, Socorro County,
New Mexico, USA.
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TYPE 5
The specimens described below were obtained from a gentleman in Arizona who had a very interesting historical story to share regarding the original collecting of the specimens on this page. “My father was a Captain in the Navy Medical Corp. and was involved with the Post-War testing of the atomic bomb in the Pacific (Marshall Islands). Because of his medical position, he also had unrestricted access to the Trinity Site after the July 1945 blast. It is my understanding that he collected these Trinitite specimens shortly after they were created (ca. 1946). To protect their delicate shapes, the specimens were wrapped individually in tissue and placed into storage. My father was also the head medical officer on Operation Crossroads which was the first of a series of bomb tests at Bikini and other atolls in the Marshall Islands. Prior to the Bomb testing, he and his crew collected 10s of thousands of seashells (most of which are housed in the Smithsonian collection). Some of the atolls where the shells were collected from are still restricted after more than 60 years.”
The Trinitite specimens listed below were all collected from one site within the blast area. They have certain features that are common to specimens collected within the approximately 2,400 foot diameter blast area, yet slightly different from many specimens collected from various other parts of the glassy, Trinitite covered area that was formed on July 16, 1945.
Similarities of specimens in this group to others offered on our web site:
a. Glassy surface is sometimes shiny, yet often included with granular sand particles.
b. Frothy internal texture of the glass.
c. Length X width is generally much greater than the thickness.
Observed features noted in specimens from this collecting site:
a. Glassy surface is typically smooth and very shiny, with little or no sand particles included / adhering.
b. Internal structure of the Trinitite glass is more compact, i.e., there is a less “frothy” or micro gas bubble included texture. Larger, exploded (open) gas bubbles are often present.
c. Color is generally mottled, with slightly darker olive green vs. lighter green coloration, than specimens collected from other sites within the blast area.
d. The sand particles adhering to the bases of the specimens from this site are usually microscopic, rather than being of the coarse, granular nature typically seen in Trinitite specimens. This fine-textured sand is sometimes pale smoky gray in color. One researcher reported that a fine-grained gray powder was often observed on specimens with high surface radioactivity, however, after more than 60 years the detectable radioactivity of Trinitite, in general, is very low.
e. Colored inclusions, mainly caused by iron, copper, or by incorporation of the fused desert Feldspar or sand into the Trinitite glass, were observed in very few specimens from this site.
The graph, below the table, is a summary of data for Trinitite specimens analyzed by an independent researcher. It shows a comparison of random Trinitite specimens (as listed in Types 1 through 4 on the previous pages), compared to the Type 5 specimens on this page. On all specimens surveyed, Cesium-137 was found present – one of the indicators of atomic fission. When the Cesium-137 peaks are scaled to each other, the abundance of Eu-152 in the Type 5 specimens measured is seen to be much greater. This suggests Type 5 specimens were collected closer to the rim of the crater where neutron radiation was strongest.
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