Backfilled, buried building that covers the original crater floor with its coating of still-radioactive trinitite, sand turned to glass by the heat of the bomb
Trinitite and 1951 packaging, on display at Mineral Museum, Socorro, New Mexico right: San Lorenzo Catholic Cemetery, Socorro
Between rows of unassertive grave markers, fallen crucifixes and faded flowers, I found solace: this death, at least, I recognised. A tattered American flag flapped erratically in the wind and I felt this was the right place from which to take a sample of sand, something I did at each significant research destination. As I crouched by the side of the road just outside the fence, a wicked needle-like thorn pierced cleanly through the skin of my heel. Blood spilled onto the sand and I felt a shock of understanding: that in order to take from this deceptively benign place, I must leave some of myself behind. c
On the way out of Socorro, I stopped at San Lorenzo Catholic Cemetery, maintained by the families of the deceased. Socorro, 75 miles south of Albuquerque and the closest city to Trinity Site, is situated at the north end of the White Sands Missile Range, about 70 miles away. Socorro has a fine mineral museum on the campus of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology with spectacular mineral and rock specimens from the southwestern United States. It was at this museum that I saw my first piece of trinitite on display before finding tiny pieces littering the ground at Trinity Site.
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