From Hiroshima's Debris: Scientists Discover a New Mineral
More than eight decades after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, an international team led by Luca Bindi from the University of Florence has discovered a new mineral in tiny glassy particles known as 'Hiroshimaite'. This material formed due to the immense heat of the explosion and features an unprecedented cubic crystal structure. The findings were published in the journal 'Science Advances', and analyses revealed a mixture of iron, chromium, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, and aluminum with a high proportion of silicon.
More than eight decades after the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, an international team of researchers has discovered a metallic material with an unprecedented atomic structure, formed under the extreme conditions accompanying the nuclear bomb explosion. The discovery came while studying tiny glassy particles known as 'Hiroshimaite', materials that formed as a result of the explosion's immense heat, which melted the city's buildings, soil, metals, and glass, before the molten materials vaporized and later fell around Hiroshima Bay after cooling. The study's results were published in the journal 'Science Advances', and were led by an international team headed by mineralogist and crystallographer Luca Bindi from the University of Florence in Italy. During the analysis of 34 samples of Hiroshimaite particles, the researchers found tiny metallic crystals inside one of the glassy particles, from which they were able to extract four, each no larger than about 10 micrometers. The analyses showed that one of these particles contains a mixture of metallic elements including iron, chromium, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, and aluminum, in addition to a high proportion of silicon, but what was distinctive was the way atoms were arranged within its crystal structure. Using advanced analytical techniques, including X-ray diffraction, the scientists determined that the alloy possesses a cubic, organized crystal structure never before recorded with this combination of elements. The discovery adds a new scientific dimension to the study of the effects of nuclear explosions, revealing how extreme physical conditions can produce materials with previously unknown properties and atomic compositions.