Few would argue that the American nuclear explosions in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are terrible tragedies. These events greatly influenced many areas of life not only for the Japanese, but also for the rest of the world.
But changes also took place in geology - scientists began to find very interesting glass formations that remained in the sand at the site of the explosion. The found minerals are called "Hiroshimites".
For the first time, these pieces were found by scientist Mario Vanier at the time when he was researching the Motujina Peninsula, located near Hiroshima. It was there, in the layers of sand, that he discovered very strange stones of the correct shape.
According to all laws, they shouldn't have been here. In theory. However, these minerals have been found in large quantities, in all shapes and sizes. In most cases, the shape of the stones is spherical.
The scientist decided to analyze the found minerals and gave them to the laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley. There they were carefully studied and came to an amazing conclusion - these minerals are of anthropogenic origin.
That is, they arose in the fault of man - after two nuclear explosions were carried out on the territory of Japan in 1945. Moreover, they were found not only at the epicenter of the explosion - studies have shown that Hiroshimites were found even several tens of kilometers from it.
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With the help of the experiment, the researchers found that for the formation of Hiroshimites, the sand temperature must be at least 1800 degrees Celsius. However, here they realized that these minerals can be formed not only due to nuclear explosions - theoretically, they can also form in the mouth of a volcano.
As I already wrote, in most cases the shape of these minerals is close to spherical. And it turned out because at the moment of the explosion, tons of earth rock were lifted into the air, which at the moment of their rise were heated to a liquid state - roughly speaking, such large drops were obtained.
And when they flew to the ground, they already had time to cool down, turning into something like glass balls. By the way, people in the past used something similar to make lead bullets - they took molten metal and dropped it into water from a great height, resulting in spherical bullets.
But what is even more interesting - analyzes have shown that these minerals contain many foreign inclusions of a very different nature. Roughly speaking, you can find almost everything here:
1) Marble.
2) Rubber.
3) Metals.
4) And even concrete.
It should be noted that Hiroshimites are found not only in Japan - researchers have been finding something similar for many years in the state of Nevada in New Mexico. However, those minerals have a slightly different name - trinitites.
And they named them in honor of the American Trinity nuclear program. According to scientists, theoretically, such minerals can also appear if lightning strikes the sand.