'Extreme' crystal that formed in 1945 nuclear bomb test is unlike anything scientists have seen

Key Points:

• Researchers have discovered unique clathrate crystals in red trinitite, a glass formed from the first nuclear bomb test in 1945 at the Trinity site in New Mexico, marking the first time such crystals have been found as a byproduct of a nuclear blast.
• The clathrate crystals consist of silicon atoms forming cages that trap copper and calcium atoms, a rare crystalline structure in nature, especially for inorganic compounds.
• The extreme conditions of the Trinity explosion, with temperatures over 2,700°F and pressures comparable to deep Earth crust levels, forced atoms into unusual configurations, creating these rare mineral phases.
• This discovery expands scientific understanding of mineral formation under extreme conditions, highlighting how events like nuclear blasts can generate new mineral structures not replicable in laboratories.
• The study, published in the journal PNAS, also examined the relationship between these clathrate crystals and previously identified silicon-rich quasicrystals in trinitite, concluding they are unlikely to be directly related but both reveal the limits of mineral formation.