nt is a low structure

which is protecting an original portion
of th e crater area .. This Carl Rudder photo shows an unident
ified soldier at g

round zero. He is inspecting one of the footings from the 100-foot tower. In 2004 members of the missile range's Public Affairs Office began assisting Los Alamos National Lab scientists Robert Hermes and William Strickfaden in a fresh look at Trinitite and ho

w it was formed. The two published the results of their investigation in the Fall 2005 issue of "Nuclear Weapons Journal." The two scientists were puzzled by spheroids within pieces of Trinitite. The spheroids looked like little droplets and suggested that instead of being baked below the explosion like a giant trinitite brulee, the desert sand was first scooped up into the fireball. Inside the fireball, the melted sand behaved just as water does in a regular cloud: tiny droplets aggregated into bigger droplets that bec

ame too heavy to remain suspended and fell as a rain of molten glass.

• "Much of the layer was formed not on the ground but by a rain of m
  aterial injected into the fireball that melted, fell back, and collected on the hot sand to form the observed puddles of Trinitite, especially within the radius of t
• he hottest part of the event," the study concluded. "Af
  ter falling to the ground, the top surface of the Trinitite layer was still heated somewhat by the fireball and thus de
• veloped a smooth surface." "We calculated an average fi
  reball temperature of 8,430 Kelvin," they reported. That's 14,710 degrees Fahrenheit. The new theory explains the tiny spheres of glass found onsite as drops that cooled and hardened enough to keep their shape when they hit the ground. It also explains why there was Trinitite found on to
• p of the outer edges of the asphalt used
  around the 100-foot tower and on some objects left in the ground zero area. Soldiers and scientists relax in the McDonald water tank. (It's the Schmidt house) The George McDonald ranch house sits within an 85'x85' low stone wall. The house was built in 1913 by Franz Sc
• hmidt, a German immigr
  ant. An addition on the north side was constructed in the 1930s by the McDonalds. A display about the Schmidt family is in the house during each open house. The ranch house is a one-story, 1,750 square-foot building. It is built of adobe which was plastered and painted. An ice house is located on the west side along with an underground cistern which sto
• red rain water running off the roof. At one time the north addition contained
  a toilet and bathtub which drained into a septic tank northwest of the house. There is a large, divided water storage tank and a Chicago Aeromotor windmill east of the house. The scientists and support people used the north tank as a swimming pool during the long hot summer of 1945. South of the windmill are the remains of a bunkhouse and a barn which was part garage. Further to the east are corrals and holding pens.
• The buildings and fixtures e
  ast of the house were stabilized to prevent further deterioration. The ranch was abandoned in 1942 when the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range took over the land to use in training World War II bombing crews. The house stood empty until the Manhattan Project suppor
• t personnel arrived in early 1945
  . Inside the house the northeast room (the master bedroom) was designated the assembly room. Workbenches and tables were installed. To keep dust and sand out of instruments and tools, the windows wer
• e covered with plastic. Tape was used to fasten the edges of the plastic and to seal doors and cracks in the walls. The explosion, only two miles away, did not significantly damage the house. Most of t

he windows were blown out,

• but the main structure was intact. Years of rain water dripping through
• holes in the roof did much more damage. The barn did not do as w
• ell. During the Trinity test the roo
• f was bowed inwar
• d and some of the
• roofing was blown away. The roof has since
• collapsed. The house stood empty and deteriorating until1982 when the U.S. Army stabilized the house

to prevent any further damage. Shortly after, the Department of Energy and U.S. Army provided the funds for the National Park Service to completely restore the house. The work was done in 1984. All efforts were directed at making the house appear as it did on July 12, 1945 when the house was used in the assembly process. (Afterwards) The story of what happened at Trinity Site did not come to light until after the second atomic bomb w

as exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6. President Truman made the announcement that day. Three days later, August 9, the third atomic bomb devastated the city of Nagasaki, and on August 14 the Japanese surrendered. Trinity Si