Now offered are specimens of glass created by very different process than the preceding two lots. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in Alamogordo, New Mexico — (the same date that Apollo 11 would journey 24 years later to the Moon). This pivotal test was the final step before two similar bombs were detonated just three weeks later — on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The code name for the test which marked the beginning of the nuclear age was “Trinity”. The intense heat of the blast melted the sand of the Chihuahuan Desert and the greenish glass which resulted was named trinitite.

As the mushroom cloud expanded, some of the trinitite pooled and solidified on the ground, while other globules were swept into the powerful vortex and subsequently rained down in aerodynamic shapes. Unsurprisingly, trinitite is perfectly safe to handle for the same reason the city of Hiroshima, a thriving city of over a million residents, is safe today. Atomic bombs release at the most no more than 150 pounds of highly dispersed uranium into the atmosphere. Some may draw comparisons between trinitite and the tragedy of Chernobyl, but in in Chernobyl there were 180 tons of nuclear fuel on the ground.

As a further aside, it’s worth noting that meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere release more energy than atomic bombs, but unlike atomic bombs, which are designed to explode close to Earth's surface to maximize destruction, fireballs from space typically detonate tens of miles above the Earth, dispersing their energy in all directions.

Hued in a pale green and often with a glassy sheen, trinitite is highly vesicular; it contains countless tiny pockets formed by rapid cooling. In 1953, most of the trinitite from the White Sands test site was bulldozed and buried, as the area became overwhelmed by tourists eager to take home a piece of history. Today, trinitite remains one of the rarest and most intriguing relics from the dawn of the nuclear age, a tangible link to the event that changed the world forever.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.
Total trinitite weight: 211 grams. There are more than 250 specimens in the jar with the largest measuring 27 x 21 x 4mm (1 x 0.75 x 0.2 in.)
Jar dimensions: 90mm (3.5 in.) high and 70mm (2.75 in.) in diameter