Researchers Find New Iron-Silicon Alloy in Hiroshima Bomb Debris 81 Years Later
Updated
Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 6
Researchers Find New Iron-Silicon Alloy in Hiroshima Bomb Debris 81 Years Later
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 6
Summary
A newly identified iron-silicon alloy with a never-before-seen structure was found inside Hiroshima fallout particles, researchers reported in Science Advances.
Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction showed the fleck formed when the 1945 blast vaporized urban metals, glass, soil and water, then cooled them rapidly inside the fireball.
The bomb detonated about 548 meters above Hiroshima with force equal to 20,000 tons of TNT, generating temperatures up to 7,700 C and conditions the team says cannot yet be replicated in a lab.
Luca Bindi's team said the finding broadens known materials created by nuclear detonations and could aid nuclear forensics by preserving clues to what happened inside a fireball.
The result echoes Bindi's earlier discovery of a quasicrystal in Trinity test debris, suggesting nuclear blasts can create both quasicrystals and near-quasicrystal metallic phases.