The Trinity Nuclear Test Created a Never-Before-Seen Material

[Narrator] The first atomic bomb test in 1945

created an entirely new material.

A team of geologists at the University of Florence, Italy

identified the novel clathrate that formed

during the Trinity nuclear test on July 16th, 1945

in the New Mexico Desert.

It's a material never before observed, either in nature

or as an artificial compound created in a lab.

Clathrates are materials characterized

by a cage-like structure that traps other atoms

and molecules inside, giving them unique properties.

These materials are being studied

for purposes from energy conversion

and the development of new semiconductors

to gas storage and hydrogen for future energy technologies.

During the discovery of the new material,

using techniques like X-ray diffraction,

the team was able to identify a type 1 clathrate

based on calcium, copper, and silicon

within a tiny copper-rich metal droplet

embedded in a sample of red trinitite,

the glassy residue that formed in the desert

after the Trinity nuclear test.

Researchers say it forms spontaneously during the explosion

and explained that events such as nuclear explosions,

lightning strikes, or meteoritic impacts

function as true natural laboratories

and allow us to observe forms of matter

that we cannot easily reproduce in the laboratory.