zero. The tank's passengers found that the 100-foot steel tower had
virtually disappeared, with only the metal and concrete stumps of its
four legs remaining. Surrounding ground zero was a crater almost
2,400 feet across and about ten feet deep in places. Desert sand
around the tower had been fused by the intense heat of the blast into
a jade colored glass. This atomic glass was given the name Atomsite,
but the name was later changed to Trinitite.

Due to the intense secrecy surrounding the test, no accurate
information of what happened was released to the public until after
the second atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan. However, many
people in New Mexico were well aware that something extraordinary had
happened the morning of July 16, 1945. The blinding flash of light,
followed by the shock wave had made a vivid impression on people who
lived within a radius of 160 miles of ground zero. Windows were
shattered 120 miles away in Silver City, and residents of Albuquerque
saw the bright light of the explosion on the southern horizon and felt
the tremor of the shock waves moments later.

The true story of the Trinity test first became known to the public on
August 6, 1945. This is when the world's second nuclear bomb,
nicknamed Little Boy, exploded 1,850 feet over Hiroshima, Japan,
destroying a large portion of the city and killing an estimated 70,000
to 130,000 of its inhabitants. Three days later on August 9, a third
atomic bomb devastated the city of Nagasaki and killed approximately
45,000 more Japanese. The Nagasaki weapon was a plutonium bomb,
similar to the Trinity device, and it was nicknamed Fat Man. On
Tuesday August 14, at 7 p.m. Eastern War Time, President Truman made a
brief formal announcement that Japan had finally surrendered and World
War II was over after almost six years and 60 million deaths!