On this day in 1945, at at 5:29 a.m. Mountain War Time, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon was conducted by the United States Army. The test, code-named ‘Trinity’ was of an implosion-design plutonium bomb, or “gadget” – the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.
At 05:29:21 MWT the device exploded with an energy equivalent to 24.8 ± 2 kilotons of TNT (103.8 ± 8.4 TJ). The desert sand, largely made of silica, melted and became a mildly radioactive light green glass, which was named trinitite. The explosion created a crater approximately 4.7 feet (1.4 m) deep and 88 yards (80 m) wide. The radius of the trinitite layer was approximately 330 yards (300 m). The 100-foot tower was completely vaporized. At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated “brighter than daytime” for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as “being as hot as an oven” at the base camp. The observed colors of the illumination changed from purple to green and eventually to white. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers. It was felt over 100 miles (160 km) away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles (12.1 km) in height.
Famous color photograph of the “Trinity” shot, the first nuclear test explosion.
Surf and Turf???
Today is the birthday, in 1952, of American musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer Stewart Copeland best known as the drummer for The Police and for his film music soundtracks. He was also a member of Curved Air who had 1971 UK No.4 single ‘Back Street Luv’. The Police scored the 1983 UK & US No.1 single ‘Every Breath You Take’ plus four other UK No.1 singles.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs
