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Trinitite, also known as atomsite or Alamogordo glass, [1] [2] is the glassy residue left on the desert floor after the plutonium-based Trinity nuclear bomb test on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The glass is primarily composed of arkosic sand composed of quartz grains and feldspar (both microcline and smaller amount of plagioclase ...
Such current may propagate into silica-rich quartzose sand, mixed soil, clay, or other sediments, rapidly vaporizing and melting resistant materials within such a common dissipation regime. [3] This results in the formation of generally hollow and/or vesicular, branching assemblages of glassy tubes, crusts, and clumped masses. [4]
One common way in which lechatelierite forms naturally is by very-high-temperature melting of quartz sand during a lightning strike. The result is an irregular, branching, often foamy hollow tube of silica glass called a fulgurite. [2] Not all fulgurites are lechatelierite; the original sand must be nearly pure silica.
Image credits: Ross Burgener Meanwhile, for Dr. Brandon, the most beautiful natural phenomenon is the northern lights, whereas the most fascinating is the diel vertical migration.
The glass transition temperature of basalt is about 700 °C (1,292 °F). [4] The mechanisms controlling formation of volcanic glass are further illustrated by the two forms of basaltic glass, tachylite and sideromelane. Tachylite is opaque to transmitted light because of the abundance of tiny oxide mineral crystals suspended in the glass ...
Libyan desert glass A large sample with mass 26 kg. Exhibited at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris in 2018.. Libyan desert glass or Great Sand Sea glass is an impactite, made mostly of lechatelierite, [1] found in areas in the eastern Sahara, in the deserts of eastern Libya and western Egypt.
Minerals such as cubanite, troilite and calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions found in the glass were also found in debris from a comet that was collected during NASA's Stardust mission, according to ...
Aphanitic (a = not, phaner = visible) rocks, in contrast to phaneritic rocks, typically form from lava which crystallize rapidly on or near Earth's surface. When extrusive rocks make contact with the atmosphere they cool quickly, so the minerals do not have time to form large crystals. The individual crystals in an aphanitic igneous rock are ...