The formation of the trinitites unveiled by their oxygen and silicon isotopic compositions

Abstract

During the world’s first nuclear explosion, in 1945, glassy melts called “trinitites”, mostly derived from the sands at the surface of the test site, formed and were deposited at or near the hypocenter. The processes of formation of this fallout remain unclear. Here, we show how the oxygen and silicon isotopic compositions of three trinitites allow to refine their formation scenario. The three samples are typical of trinitites, being composed of various crystalline phases and of glassy phases divided into three chemical groups (CaMgFe, alkali, silica) that are mixed in various proportions in the three samples. The three samples show a large range of oxygen and silicon isotopic variations (−10.9 ± 0.6 < δ³⁰Si < 4.2 ± 0.6 ‰, and 2.3 ± 0.4 < δ¹⁸O < 24.2 ± 0.5 ‰). At variance with the Hiroshima fallout deposits, no oxygen mass-independent isotopic fractionation was found in the three trinitites. The chemical and isotopic compositions of the chemical groups reveal that they result from different processes: the silica phases are molten fragments of the site material, while the CaMgFe and alkali phases are produced by the mixing of condensates and molten site material. Models show that the observed silicon isotopic variations resulted from Rayleigh distillation during condensation of the gaseous species injected into the cloud, while the variability in composition of the site materials also played an important role for controlling the oxygen isotopic compositions. From these observations, a general scenario, beginning with the vaporization of the site surface, producing a depression, is proposed. The vaporized material condensed and grew by agglomeration with other condensates and liquid materials. These agglomerates rained on the surface and quenched, forming the trinitites. This scenario is different from the formation of the Hiroshima glasses but shows some similarities to tektite formation.