210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico, Jornada del Muerto, where a plutonium detonation device was tested, is where the first nuclear explosion in history took place on July 16, 1945. The code name of the test was "Trinity".
A plutonium weapon called “Gadget” mounted on top of a 100-meter tower exploded in the New Mexico desert at exactly 05:30 am. The "Gadget" nuclear bomb that exploded on Trinity had the appearance of a gigantic steel sphere. It was a blast weapon made of plutonium, similar to the Fat Man bomb that was released on Nagasaki. Plutonium blast weapons are more effective and powerful than uranium bombs, which have a gun-like design, such as the Little Boy bomb that exploded over Hiroshima.
It released 18.6 kilotons of energy, which instantly vaporized the tower and transformed the nearby sand, asphalt, into trinitite, a type of green glass. A massive explosion that followed the initial explosion swept the desert with sweltering heat and knocked out the onlookers.
A U.S. Navy pilot said it illuminated the aircraft's cockpit, as if flying at 10.000 feet over Albuquerque, New Mexico, as if a sun was rising from the south.
It was a message when the Albuquerque Air Traffic Control Station was called to not fly south.
Alamogordo Air Base published a newsletter after the test. According to the report, significant amounts of high explosive and pyrotechnic materials were found in a remote ammunition magazine.
However, no one was injured or killed. After the US bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August, the true cause of the explosion was not made public.
After the US bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August, the true cause of the explosion was not made public.
As a result of the success of the Trinity test, the US military was able to use an atomic bomb, which started the Atomic Age.
The Department of Defense owns the Trinity Zone, which is now part of the White Sands Missile Range. An obelisk made of black lava, accompanied by a memorial sign, marks the location of Ground Zero. The monument is surrounded by a zone of slight depression several hundred meters wide, showing where the explosion blew the ground. In a safe area, only a few fragments of green trinitite are still visible.
Outside the fenced zero point area is the Jumbo, a 214-ton steel container built to contain plutonium.
In the days before the test, the Jumbo was one of the unusual devices that appeared on the Trinity field. A large cylindrical steel vessel, Jumbo. General Leslie Groves placed an order for $12 million for production as a containment ship, fearing that testing would not go well.
The plutonium core was supposed to explode inside the Jumbo. Jumbo would save the Gadget's rare plutonium for future research, should the bomb "launch" or fail to detonate properly.
The 2400-kilogram high explosive in the bomb exploded, but there was no nuclear explosion. After all, the Jumbo was not used.
The restored McDonald's farmhouse, where the device's plutonium core is mounted, is located about two miles south.
The remains of the base camp, where some 1945 scientists, soldiers, and technicians temporarily resided in the summer of 200, are about ten miles southwest of ground zero.
Remains of observation posts 10.000 yards away are still visible.
Günceleme: 27/07/2022 13:28
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