{"id":17197,"date":"2026-05-18T01:52:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T01:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/scientists-make-impossible-discovery-at-site-of-worlds-first-nuclear-blast-gb-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T01:52:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T01:52:55","slug":"scientists-make-impossible-discovery-at-site-of-worlds-first-nuclear-blast-gb-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/scientists-make-impossible-discovery-at-site-of-worlds-first-nuclear-blast-gb-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists make 'impossible' discovery at site of world's first nuclear blast – GB News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crackdown on gangs operating small boats leads to surge in arrests
WATCH: First-of-its-kind exhibition on Britain's nuclear testing opens to the public
GB NEWS
By James Saunders<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>
Published: 17\/05\/2026
Experts say the new find should not exist on our planet
Scientists have uncovered a crystal which experts say should not exist on our planet.
The gem was formed in New Mexico almost a century ago during the Trinity test – the world's first nuclear explosion.<\/p>\n

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Without this atomic blast, triggered by a plutonium device called the Gadget, the mineral could never have come into being on Earth.<\/p>\n

A research team headed by University of Florence geologist Professor Luca Bindi said: "Extreme, transient conditions produced by nuclear detonations can generate solid-state phases inaccessible to conventional synthesis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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"We report the discovery of a previously unknown calcium copper silicate type-I clathrate formed during the 1945 Trinity nuclear test; the first crystallographically confirmed clathrate identified among nuclear-explosion products."<\/p>\n

The blast on July 16, 1945, released a blast equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT.<\/p>\n

The explosion, as popularised in 2023 biopic Oppenheimer<\/a>, instantly vaporised the 100ft test tower along with copper equipment used to record the experiment.<\/p>\n

A fireball consumed everything nearby, melting the tower and copper together with asphalt and desert sand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Trinitite\"\/<\/p>\n

The gem was formed in New Mexico almost a century ago during the Trinity test – the world's first nuclear explosion<\/p>\n

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BINDI ET AL<\/p>\n

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The mushroom cloud transformed this mixture into a glassy material now called trinitite.<\/p>\n

Researchers have discovered strange structures within this unique substance.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Prof Bindi and her colleagues identified an unexpected "quasicrystal" in a rare red variety of trinitite containing metal from the tower, cables and recording instruments.<\/p>\n

This red trinitite variant contains a clathrate, a crystal with atoms arranged in a cage-like lattice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SCIENCE BREAKTHROUGHS – READ MORE: <\/h3>\n