[extropy-chat] green glasslike glaze

[Gary Miller]

How can people be collecting this stuff?

Haven't we been told that the half-life for the radiation produced by atomic
weapons is so long that it would leave the areas uninhabitable for thousands
if not tens of thousands of years?

Which leads me to another question I've had for ages.

What is left after an underground nuclear blast?

Is there a large under ground spherical glass or crystalline cavern created
by all the heat and pressure.

If so would some of the crystals formed be gemstones.

Previously I had assumed that even if there were, they would be so
radioactive for so long that excavating such a site would be useless because
of the radioactivity.

Is it possible that at the blast temperature and pressures created new
crystal and/or materials not normally found in nature could be created?

I realize this is a lot of questions but I find the whole topic pretty
interesting.   

Has anyone ever seen any good books devoted to this subject?

Or has this whole area of exploration been kept off limits by government
restriction to these sites?
 
-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 12:50 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] green glasslike glaze

On Sat, May 14, 2005 at 08:31:09AM +0200, scerir wrote:
> Interesting letter, by R.P. Feynman,
> about the bomb in New Mexico. And much more.
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1481368,00.html

The artificial mineral created in the blast is called trinitite:

http://www.google.com/search?q=trinitite&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&sta
rt=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official