Scientists have discovered what they think is the world’s oldest quasicrystal in the remains of the first-ever atomic bomb test, Chemistry World reports. The first nuclear detonation was carried out in the New Mexico Desert on 16 July 1945, when World War Two was approaching its final months.
In the explosion, particles of silicate-based desert sand were sucked into a fireball, where a chemical fusion led to them being expelled as a glassy mineral called trinitite. Usually the fragments would be green, but in this case they were red, which scientists believe was the result of sand fusing with copper oxide from the recording equipment.
The new discovery is of an icosahedral quasicrystal, Si61Cu30Ca7Fe2, found inside a 1cm-long sample of red trinitite. The reason scientists believe it is a man-made crystal is because naturally occurring crystals have a repeating pattern in their atomic structure, whereas the new discovery does not.
The scientific team, led by geologist Luca Bindi of the University of Florence, and theoretical physicist Paul Steinhardt from Princeton University, investigated the nuclear explosion debris. They used x-ray diffraction to examine ‘metallic blobs’, and discovered the trinitite sample, which could only have occurred in extreme conditions of high pressure and heat.
Chloe Bonamici, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison specialising in isotope geochemistry, says the work supports the idea that ‘inside a nuclear fireball is a very unusual bonding environment’.
Bonamici added: ‘The discovery may also lend support to the idea of an important role for condensation from vapours and plasmas in a nuclear fireball, as many man-made quasicrystals are produced by vapour deposition and plasma spraying processes.’
The discovery opens up the possibility that other atomic test sites contain quasicrystals, which may lead to a greater understanding of how they form, and of the nature of nuclear explosions.
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