When compared with samples collected farther away, the glass closest to the detonation site was depleted in volatile elements such as zinc. The zinc that was present was enriched in the heavier and less-reactive isotopes, which are forms of these elements with different atomic mass but the same chemical properties.
Zinc and other volatile elements, which vaporize under high temperature, were "dried out" close to the explosion than those further away from the blast. The findings were published in the Feb. 8 issue of the journal Science Advances.
"The results show that evaporation at high temperatures, similar to those at the beginning of planet formation, leads to the loss of volatile elements and to enrichment in heavy isotopes in the left over materials from the event," said Day, a Scripps geoscientist and lead author of the study. "This has been conventional wisdom, but now we have experimental evidence to show it."
Scientists have long suggested that similar chemical reactions took place when a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized planetary body produced debris that ultimately formed the Moon. The analysis by Day and colleagues found similarities between the trinitite and lunar rocks in that they are both highly depleted in volatile elements and contain little to no water.