On This Day July 16

The Atomic Age began on July 16, 1945, when the USA successfully detonated a plutonium-based nuclear bomb. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico. At 05:29:21 MWT the bomb exploded with an energy equivalent to around 20 kilotons of TNT (84 TJ). The desert sand, largely made of silica, melted and became a mildly radioactive light green glass. The explosion left a crater in the desert 5 feet (1.5 m) deep and 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.

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