"Trinity" test site
An early stage in the "Trinity" fireball, photographed by Berlyn Brixner
Type	Nuclear test site
Location	33.6773° N 106.4757° W near Alamogordo
Operator	Manhattan Engineering District (USA)
Status	Inactive
In use	July 16, 1945
Map showing location of the site

The "Trinity" test was the first test of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States on July 16, 1945 at 33.6773° N 106.4757° W, thirty miles (48 km) southeast of Socorro on what is now White Sands Missile Range, headquartered near Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was a test of an implosion-design plutonium bomb, the same type of weapon later dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The detonation was equivalent to the explosion of around 20 kilotons of TNT, and is usually credited as the beginning of the Atomic Age. Image File history File links The 1945 TRINITY nuclear explosion, early stage of the fireball. ... One of Brixners best known photographs of the Trinity test. ... Preparation for an underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in the 1980s. ... Alamogordo is a city located in Otero County, New Mexico, United States of America. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... Image File history File links Locator_Dot. ... Image File history File links US_Locator_Blank. ... Preparation for an underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in the 1980s. ... July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), formerly known as the White Sands Proving Grounds, is located in Otero County, New Mexico, mostly in the Tularosa Basin, a valley between the Organ Mountains, San Andres Mountains and the Sacramento Mountains of the U.S. state of New Mexico, it includes the northern... Alamogordo is a city located in Otero County, New Mexico, United States of America. ... Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ... The first nuclear weapons, though large, cumbersome and inefficient, provided the basic design building blocks of all future weapons. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... Nagasaki (Japanese: 長崎市, Nagasaki-shi  , long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ... A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ... Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is an explosive. ... The Atomic Age was a phrase used for a time in the 1950s in which it was believed that all power sources in the future would be atomic in nature. ...

History

Main article: Manhattan project

The creation of nuclear weapons arose out of political and scientific developments of the late 1930s. The rise of fascist governments in Europe and new discoveries about the nature of atoms converged in the plans of the United States and the United Kingdom to develop powerful weapons using nuclear fission as their primary source of energy. The Manhattan Project, as the Allied effort was called, culminated in the test of a nuclear weapon at what is now called Trinity site in July 1945, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few weeks later. The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Europe at its furthest extent, reaching to the Urals. ... Quantum theory is a theory of physics that uses Plancks constant. ... For the generation of electrical power by fission, see Nuclear power plant An induced nuclear fission event. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ...

Development

While U.S. and British efforts to investigate the feasibility of nuclear weapons began as early as 1939, the effort at development only began in earnest in 1942 when it was transferred under the authority of the U.S. Army and became the Manhattan Project. The project focused on the development of fissile material to power the nuclear chain reactions which took place inside the weapons, and the design of the weapons themselves at the top-secret Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico.^[1] The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... This article or section should include material from Fissile material In nuclear engineering, a fissile material is one that is capable of sustaining a chain reaction of nuclear fission. ... Albert Einsteins letter to President Roosevelt in 1939 about his concern, about (Nuclear chain reactions) Click for closeup of letter A nuclear chain reaction occurs when on average more than one nuclear reaction is caused by another nuclear reaction, thus leading to an exponential increase in the number of... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ...

The two types of fission bomb assembly methods investigated during the Manhattan Project. Because of the complexity of the implosion design, it was deemed that it needed to be tested before use in combat.

From January 1944 to July 1945, the large-scale production plants were set in operation, and the fissile material thus produced was then used to determine the features of the weapons. Multipronged research was undertaken to follow several angles of attack against the problem of bomb design. Early decisions about weapon design had been based on minute quantities of uranium-235 (enriched uranium) and plutonium created in pilot plants and laboratory cyclotrons. From these results it was thought that the creation of a bomb was as simple as shooting one piece of fissile material into another to form a critical mass. Image File history File links Fission_bomb_assembly_methods. ... Image File history File links Fission_bomb_assembly_methods. ... The first nuclear weapons, though large, cumbersome and inefficient, provided the basic design building blocks of all future weapons. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation, at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... Uranium-235 is an isotope of uranium that differs from the elements other common isotope, uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding fission chain reaction. ... These pie-graphs showing the relative proportions of uranium-238 (blue) and uranium-235 (red) at different levels of enrichment. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... A pair of Dee electrodes with loops of coolant pipes on their surface at the Lawrence Hall of Science. ... A sphere of plutonium surrounded by neutron-reflecting blocks of tungsten carbide. ...

The production of uranium-235 proved to be quite difficult with existing technology, but the production of plutonium was comparatively easier, as it was a by-product of specially constructed nuclear reactors, the first of which was developed by Enrico Fermi only in 1942. Reactor-grade plutonium, however, was considerably less pure than cyclotron-produced plutonium, and the presence of another isotope of plutonium in the resulting product meant that the simple "gun type" model of bomb design would not work: the presence of extra neutrons meant that the weapon would pre-detonate with a greatly reduced yield. This problem, when discovered in 1942, led to a redesign of the plutonium bomb towards the idea of "implosion", by which a spherical core of plutonium would be compressed using conventional explosives, which would increase its density and thus create a critical mass. Core of a small nuclear reactor used for research. ... Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954) was an Italian physicist most noted for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for the development of quantum theory. ... Isotopes are any of the several different forms of an element each having different atomic mass. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The problem was then to construct a weapon which would precisely compress the plutonium sphere on all sides exactly equally—any error would result in a "fizzle" which would simply eject the valuable plutonium and not result in a large explosion. Because of the difficulties in creating the explosive lenses for perfect compression using the existing technology, it was decided by Manhattan Project military leader General Leslie Groves and scientific director J. Robert Oppenheimer that a test of the concept would have to be undertaken before a weapon could be confidently used in war conditions. Modern high explosive lenses. ... Leslie Groves Leslie Richard Groves (August 17, 1896 - July 13, 1970) was a member of the United States Army who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and the primary military leader in charge of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. The son of a... J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, served as the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, beginning in 1943. ...

Test planning

Planning for the test itself was assigned to Kenneth Bainbridge, a professor of physics at Harvard University, working under explosives expert George Kistiakowsky. A proper site had to be located that would guarantee secrecy of the project's goals even as it planned to detonate a nuclear weapon of unknown strength, proper scientific equipment had to be assembled for retrieving data from the test itself, and safety guidelines had to be developed to protect personnel from the results of an unknown and highly dangerous experiment. Official test photographer Berlyn Brixner set up dozens of cameras to capture the event on film. Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge (July 27, 1904 – July 14, 1996) was a physicist at Harvard University who did work on cyclotron research and was the director of the Trinity test during the Manhattan Project. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) , is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... George Kistiakowskys ID badge photo from Los Alamos. ... One of Brixners best known photographs of the Trinity test. ...

Test site

Trinity Site (red arrow) near Carrizozo Malpais

The site was part of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, now the White Sands Missile Range. The test site is at the northern end of the range, between the towns of Carrizozo and Socorro, New Mexico, in the Jornada del Muerto in the southwestern United States (33.675° N 106.475° W). Marked Trinity Site on Astronaut Image ISS008-E-5604 Earth Sciences and Image Analysis, NASA-Johnson Space Center Nasa Astronaut photo Mission-Roll-Image Image ISS008-E-5604. ... Marked Trinity Site on Astronaut Image ISS008-E-5604 Earth Sciences and Image Analysis, NASA-Johnson Space Center Nasa Astronaut photo Mission-Roll-Image Image ISS008-E-5604. ... The Carrizozo Malpais is the long dark streak across the bottom half of the image. ... White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), formerly known as the White Sands Proving Grounds, is located in Otero County, New Mexico, mostly in the Tularosa Basin, a valley between the Organ Mountains, San Andres Mountains and the Sacramento Mountains of the U.S. state of New Mexico, it includes the northern... Carrizozo is a town located in Lincoln County, New Mexico. ... Socorro is a city located in Socorro County, New Mexico in the Rio Grande Valley, at an elevation of 4579 feet. ... The Jornada del Muerto (journey of the deadman in Spanish) was the name given by the Spanish conquistadors to the 1660s route northward from New Spain, or Mexico. ...

Two bunkers were set up to observe the test. Oppenheimer and Gen. Farrell watched from the bunker ten miles from the detonation center, while Gen. Groves watched at the seventeen-mile bunker. General Thomas Francis Farrell (December 3, 1891 –April 1967) was the Deputy Commanding General and Chief of Field Operations of the Manhattan Engineer District, acting as executive officer to General Leslie Groves. ...

Name

The exact origin of the name is unknown, but it is often attributed to laboratory leader J. Robert Oppenheimer as a reference to the poetry of John Donne. Oppenheimer had been exposed to Donne primarily through his former girlfriend Jean Tatlock, who had committed suicide in July 1944. In 1962, General Leslie Groves wrote to Oppenheimer on the origin of the name, asking if he had chosen it on the basis that it was a name common to rivers and peaks in the West and would not attract attention. "I did suggest it, but not on [that] ground... Why I chose the name is not clear, but I know what thoughts were in my mind. There is a poem of John Donne, written just before his death, which I know and love. From it a quotation: 'As West and East / In all flatt Maps—and I am one—are on, / So death doth touch the Resurrection.'" ("Hymn to God My God, in My Sicknesses"). Oppenheimer continued, "That still does not make a Trinity, but in another, better known devotional poem Donne opens, 'Batter my heart, three person'd God;—.' Beyond this, I have no clues whatever." (Holy Sonnets XIV).^[2] J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, served as the first director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, beginning in 1943. ... For the Welsh courtier and diplomat, see Sir John Donne. ... Jean Tatlock briefly dated Manhattan Project scientific leader J. Robert Oppenheimer while she was a graduate student in psychology at Stanford University in 1936 while he was a professor of physics at University of California, Berkeley. ... Leslie Groves Leslie Richard Groves (August 17, 1896 - July 13, 1970) was a member of the United States Army who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and the primary military leader in charge of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. The son of a...

Test predictions

The explosives of the Gadget were raised up to the top of the tower for the final assembly.

Betting pools were set up among the observers for the results of the test. Some predictions ranged from zero, a complete dud, to 18 kilotons of TNT (predicted by I. I. Rabi), to destruction of the state of New Mexico, to ignition of the atmosphere and incineration of the planet (fortunately, this result was calculated to be almost impossible beforehand, though for a while it caused some of the scientists some anxiety). As it turned out, Rabi won the bet.^[3] Image File history File links The preparation of the Gadget for the Trinity test, July 1945. ... Image File history File links The preparation of the Gadget for the Trinity test, July 1945. ... Isidor Isaac Rabi (July 29, 1898 - January 11, 1988) was an American physicist of Austro-Hungarian origin. ... Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ...

Test preparation

There was a pretest explosion of 108 tons of TNT on May 7 to calibrate the instrumentation. (Since then, nuclear detonation yields have been measured in units of tons of TNT equivalent, or the equivalent of that many tons of TNT.) For the actual test, the plutonium-core nuclear weapon, nicknamed the gadget, was hoisted on the top of a 20-meter steel tower for detonation — the height would give a better indication of what the weapon would be like when dropped from an airplane, as detonation in the air would maximize the amount of energy applied directly to the target (as it expanded in a spherical shape), and would kick up the least nuclear fallout. Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is an explosive. ... May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ... The word ton or tonne is derived from the Old English tunne, and ultimately from the Old French tonne, and referred originally to a large cask with a capacity of 252 wine gallons, which holds approximately 2100 pounds of water. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... The gadget, partially assembled on the shot tower for the Trinity test. ... A weapons cache is detonated at the East River Range on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan Detonation is a process of supersonic combustion that involves a shock wave and a reaction zone behind it. ... Map of hypothetical fallout dispersal after a large-scale nuclear attack against the United States. ...

The "gadget", fully assembled and ready to test.

The "gadget" was assembled at the nearby McDonald Ranch House, the components arriving on July 12. It was assembled on the 13th and precariously winched up the tower the following day. In case of failure, a huge steel canister code-named "Jumbo" was prepared to recover the valuable plutonium at the order of General Groves. Weighing 240 tons, "Jumbo" was meant to contain the explosion from the 5 tons of conventional explosives used to compress the plutonium in case the chain reaction failed. At great expense, "Jumbo" was constructed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and brought out to the test site by rail, but by the time it arrived the confidence of the scientists was high enough that they decided not to use it. It was instead hoisted up in a steel tower 800 yards (730 m) from the "gadget", as a rough measure of how powerful it would be. In the end, "Jumbo" survived, though its tower did not. Setting up the gadget at the Trinity site, 1945. ... Setting up the gadget at the Trinity site, 1945. ... The gadget, partially assembled on the shot tower for the Trinity test. ... The Trinity test was the first test of a nuclear weapon. ... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... July 13 is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining. ... Nickname: Steel City, Iron City, City of Champions, City of Bridges, City of Colleges, P-Burgh, The Burgh Motto: Benigno Numine Location in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Allegheny County Founded 1758 Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (D) Area    - City 151. ...

The detonation was initially planned for 4:00 a.m. but was postponed due to rain and lightning from early that morning. Under conditions of rain it was feared that the danger from radiation and fallout would be greatly increased, and the lightning put the scientists on edge about the possibility of an accidental detonation.

The explosion

One of the few color photographs of the "Trinity" explosion.

At 4:45 a.m. a crucial weather report came in favorably, and at 5:10 a.m. the twenty-minute countdown began. Most of the top-level scientists and military officers were observing from a base camp, ten miles (16 km) southwest of the test tower. Many other observers were around twenty miles (32 km) away, and some others were scattered at different distances, some in more informal situations (physicist Richard Feynman claimed to be the only person to see the explosion without the dark glasses provided, relying on a truck windshield to screen out harmful ultraviolet wavelengths^[4]). The final countdown was read by physicist Samuel K. Allison. Download high resolution version (1180x1474, 162 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1180x1474, 162 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988; surname pronounced ) was an American physicist known for expanding the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and particle theory. ... The solar corona as seen in deep ultraviolet light at 17. ... Samuel King Allison Samuel King Allison (November 13, 1900 – September 15, 1965) was an American physicist, most notable for his role in the Manhattan Project — where among other things he read the countdown for the detonation of the Trinity test — and his postwar work in the scientists movement. Biography Samuel...

At 05:29:45 local time (Mountain War Time), the device exploded with an energy equivalent to around 19 kilotons of TNT (87.5 TJ). It left a crater of radioactive glass in the desert 3 meters (10 feet) deep and 330 meters (1,100 feet) wide. 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 ranged from purple, to green, and eventually to white. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers.^[3] The shock wave was felt over 160 km (100 miles) away, and the mushroom cloud reached 12 km (7.5 miles) of height. As Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer watched the demonstration, he later said that a line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita came to mind: War Time was the local time adopted by the United States from February 9, 1942 to September 30, 1945. ... A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ... A joule is the work done or energy required to exert a force of one newton for a distance of one metre, so the same quantity may be referred to as a newton metre or newton-metre with the symbol N·m. ... Post-shot subsidence crater and Huron King test chamber, which was less than 20 kilotons (1980) A subsidence crater is the crater left on the surface of an area which has had an underground (usually nuclear) explosion. ... Introduction The shock wave is one of several different ways in which a gas in a supersonic flow can be compressed. ... The atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945 A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke, flame, or debris resulting from a very large explosion. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... Bhagavad Gīta भगवद्गीता, composed ca the fifth - second centuries BC, is part of the epic poem Mahabharata, located in the Bhisma-Parva chapters 23–40. ...

I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.^[5]

Test director Kenneth Bainbridge replied to Oppenheimer, "Now we are all sons of bitches." According to Oppenheimer's brother, Frank, at the time of the test Robert simply said, "It worked." Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge (July 27, 1904 – July 14, 1996) was a physicist at Harvard University who did work on cyclotron research and was the director of the Trinity test during the Manhattan Project. ... Frank Friedman Oppenheimer (August 14, 1912 – February 3, 1985) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, was a target of McCarthyism, and was later the founder of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. ...

Ground zero after the test.

In the official report on the test, Gen. Farrell wrote, "The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined..."^[6] Image File history File links Trinity-ground-zero-men-in-crater. ... Image File history File links Trinity-ground-zero-men-in-crater. ...

News reports quoted a forest ranger 150 miles (240 km) west of the site as saying he saw "a flash of fire followed by an explosion and black smoke." A New Mexican 150 miles (240 km) north said, "The explosion lighted up the sky like the sun." Other reports remarked that windows were rattled up to 200 miles (320 km) away and the sound of the explosion could be heard at just as great a distance.

An aerial shot of the "Trinity" crater shortly after the test. The small crater in the southeast corner was from the earlier test explosion of 100 tons of TNT.

In the crater the desert sand, which is largely made of silica, melted and became glass of a light green color and mildly radioactive; this was named Trinitite.^[7] The crater was filled in soon after the test. Image File history File links Trinity_crater. ... Image File history File links Trinity_crater. ... The chemical compound silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is the oxide of silicon, chemical formula SiO2. ... Sample of Trinitite. ...

The Alamagordo Air Base issued a 50-word press release noting "an explosion of a remotely located ammunitions dump, in which no one had been killed or injured." The actual cause was not publicly acknowledged until after the August 6 attack on Hiroshima. The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... For other uses, see Hiroshima (disambiguation). ...

The Manhattan Project's official journalist, William L. Laurence, had previously put multiple press releases on file with his office at the New York Times to be released in case of an emergency, ranging from a successful test (the one which was used) to more macabre scenarios explaining why all of the scientists had perished in a single freak accident. William Leonard Laurence (March 7, 1888–March 19, 1977) was a Lithuanian-American journalist known for his science journalism writing of the 1940s and 1950s while working for the New York Times. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Around 260 personnel were present, none closer than 9 km. At the next test series, Operation Crossroads in 1946, over 40,000 people were present. A 21 kiloton underwater nuclear weapons effects test, known as Operation Crossroads (Event Baker), conducted at Bikini Atoll (1946). ...

Test results

Fallout around the Trinity site. The radioactive cloud moved towards northeast with high radiation levels within about 100 miles (161 km).

The results of the test were conveyed to President Harry S. Truman and were used by him as leverage in his negotiations with the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference. Truman was, however, somewhat shocked by Joseph Stalin's subdued reaction when he told him in private about the weapon; Stalin was already well aware of the American endeavor — through espionage.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1622x1329, 204 KB) Trinity test fallout over New-Mexico. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1622x1329, 204 KB) Trinity test fallout over New-Mexico. ... Radiation in physics is the process of emitting energy in the form of waves or particles. ... Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884–December 26, 1972) was the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953); as Vice President, he succeeded to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ... Clement Atlee, Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945 The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Espionage is the practice of obtaining information about an organization or a society that is considered secret or confidential (spying) without the permission of the holder of the information. ...

Following the success of the Trinity test, two bombs were prepared for use against Japan. The first, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, was code-named "Little Boy", and used uranium-235 as its fission source. It was an untested model, but seemed very likely to work and was considerably more simplistic in design than the implosion model; in any event, it could not be tested as there was only enough uranium-235 for one bomb. The second bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, was code-named "Fat Man", and was a plutonium bomb of the type tested at the Trinity test. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed at least 120,000 people outright and many more over time, but were alleged by many internationally credible sources to have saved many more lives in the long run. (See Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for information on this historical question and the controversy that surrounds it.) Main keep of Hiroshima Castle The city of Hiroshima (広島市; -shi) is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, the largest of Japans islands. ... A postwar Little Boy casing mockup. ... Uranium-235 is an isotope of uranium that differs from the elements other common isotope, uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding fission chain reaction. ... Megane-bashi, the Eyeglasses Bridge Nagasaki (長崎市; -shi) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ... A post-war Fat Man model. ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ...

Gen. Leslie R. Groves and others at remains of the Trinity shot tower a few weeks later.

The information about the Trinity test was made public shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima. The Smyth Report, released on August 12, 1945, gave some information on the blast, and the hardbound edition released by Princeton University Press a few weeks later contained the famous "bulbous" pictures of the Trinity fireball. Image File history File links Trinity_Ground_Zero. ... Image File history File links Trinity_Ground_Zero. ... Leslie Groves Leslie Richard Groves (August 17, 1896 - July 13, 1970) was a member of the United States Army who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and the primary military leader in charge of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II. The son of a... The Smyth Report was the common name given to an administrative history written by physicist Henry DeWolf Smyth about the Allied World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project. ... August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

Oppenheimer and Groves posed for reporters near the remains of the mangled test tower shortly after the war. In the years after the test, the pictures have become a potent symbol of the beginning of the so-called "atomic age", and the test has often been featured in popular culture. The Atomic Age was a phrase used for a time in the 1950s in which it was believed that all power sources in the future would be atomic in nature. ... The 1957 photograph of Miss Atomic Bomb, a Las Vegas showgirl with a mushroom cloud dress, has often been used as representative of Cold War kitsch and a symbol of the effects of nuclear weapons on American popular culture. ...

The site today

An obelisk now stands at what was originally the "Trinity" target point.

In 1952 the site of the explosion was bull-dozed and the remaining trinitite was disposed of. On December 21, 1965, Trinity Site was declared a National Historic Landmark district, and was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Trinity site monument Image courtesy of US Govt. ... Trinity site monument Image courtesy of US Govt. ... The Luxor obelisk in the Place de la Concorde in Paris For the obelisk punctuation mark, see dagger (typography). ... Sample of Trinitite. ... December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... USS Constitution. ... A typical plaque showing entry on the National Register of Historic Places. ... October 15 is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...

More than sixty years after the test, there is still a little residual radiation at the site, about ten times higher than normal.^[8] Officials maintain that the amount of exposure received during a one-hour visit is far less than that received from eating food and being exposed to the sun.[3] The Trinity monument, a rough-sided, lava rock obelisk around 12 ft (3.65 m) high, marks the explosion's hypocenter, and "Jumbo" is still kept nearby. Radiation in physics is the process of emitting energy in the form of waves or particles. ... The Luxor obelisk in the Place de la Concorde in Paris For the obelisk punctuation mark, see dagger (typography). ... The hypocenter or hypocentre (literally: below the center from the Greek υπόκεντρον), also known as the focus. ...

The site is still a reasonably popular destination for those interested in atomic tourism, though it is only open to the public twice a year, on the first Saturdays of April and October. On July 16, 2005, a special tour of the site was conducted to mark the 60th anniversary of the Trinity test and hundreds (some news sources reported thousands) of visitors arrived to commemorate the occasion. Atomic tourism is a relatively new style of tourism in which the tourists travel to significant sites in atomic history. ... July 16 is the 197th day (198th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 168 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Nuclear weapons and the United States
• Joe 1: the first Soviet atomic bomb test (with a device modeled after the type used at the "Trinity" test).

The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air from the hypocenter. ... The United States was the first country in the world to successfully develop nuclear weapons, and is the only country to have used them in war against another nation. ... External links http://gawain. ...

References

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Trinity test

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Wikimedia Commons logo by Reid Beels The Wikimedia Commons (also called Commons or Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ... Hans Albrecht Bethe (pronounced bay-tuh; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005), was a German-American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis. ... Richard Rhodes (born July 4, 1937) is an American author of fiction and verity, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb in 1986, and most recently, John James Audubon: the Making of an American in 2004. ... Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988; surname pronounced ) was an American physicist known for expanding the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, and particle theory. ... Sanskrit ( , ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a prestigious, public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. ... Robert Jungk (1913-1994) was an Austrian writer and journalist who wrote mostly on issues relating to nuclear weapons. ... Lunar Ferroan Anorthosite #60025 (Plagioclase Feldspar). ... Quartz is one of the most common minerals in the Earths continental crust. ... General Name, Symbol, Number europium, Eu, 63 Chemical series lanthanides Group, Period, Block n/a, 6, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 151. ... Loess field in Germany Soil horizons are formed by combined biological, chemical and physical alterations. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is an alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon content between 0. ... General Name, Symbol, Number barium, Ba, 56 Chemical series alkaline earth metals Group, Period, Block 2, 6, s Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 137. ... This article or section should include material from Fissile material In nuclear engineering, a fissile material is one that is capable of sustaining a chain reaction of nuclear fission. ... Brian Greene Brian Greene (born February 9, 1963, New-York), is a physicist and one of the worlds foremost string theorists. ... Nova is a popular science television series from the USA produced by WGBH and can be seen on PBS and in more than 100 countries. ...

External links

• Trinity Remembered: 60th Anniversary
• BBC article on the 60th Anniversary
• Atomic tourism: Information for visitors
• The Trinity test on the Los Alamos National Laboratory website
• Carey Sublette's Nuclear Weapon Archive Trinity page
• The Trinity test on the Sandia National Laboratories website
• Richard Feynman, "Los Alamos from Below"; Surely, You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.
• Trinity Test Fallout Pattern
• Trinity Test Photographs
• Trinity test site, Google Maps satellite photo
• Trinity: First Test of the Atomic Bomb
• "My Radioactive Vacation", report of a visit to the Trinity site, with pictures comparing its past with its present state.
• Visiting Trinity Short article by Ker Than at 3 Quarks Daily
• "War Department release on New Mexico test, July 16, 1945", from the Smyth Report, with eyewitness reports from Gen. Groves and Gen. Farrell (1945)
• Trinity Site National Historic Landmark
• SimNuke, A large-scale fire artist's 60th anniversary trinity memorial
• Annotated bibliography for the Trinity Test from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 33.675° -106.475°
  • Satellite image from WikiMapia, Google Maps or Windows Live Local
  • Street map from MapQuest or Google Maps
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image from TerraServer-USA