Trinitite

Origin: Tularosa Basin (Alamogordo, New Mexico, USA)

The Tularosa Basin near Alamogordo includes the Trinity Site, where the first nuclear device was detonated on July 16, 1945, melting surface sand into glass known as trinitite. The glass formed as thin, pale-green, vesicular sheets and splashy droplets across the desert floor around ground zero. Trinitite from this locality is prized for its historic provenance and distinctive textures, and while older specimens circulate among collectors, the site is protected and modern collecting is prohibited.

Trinitite

Trinitite is an anthropogenic silicate glass produced when a nuclear blast fuses desert sand and test-site materials. Typically pale green, though red or gray varieties occur from copper or iron contamination - it shows frothy, vesicular to laminated textures. It contains trace radionuclides and remains mildly radioactive, though activity has declined substantially since 1945. Composition is dominantly silica derived from quartz and feldspar, with variable inclusions such as mineral grains and metallic fragments.