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 Detonated
10 miles north of the base camp, the first atomic explosion created
a fireball that fused desert sand into a green glass-like solid.
The bomb crater measured nearly 2,400 feet across and was 10 feet
deep in places. Scientist Isidor Rabi watched from the Base Camp,
recalling: "We were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn,
and there were just a few streaks of gold in the east; you could
see your neighbor very dimly. Those ten seconds were the longest
ten seconds I have ever experienced. Suddenly, there was an enormous
flash of light, the brightest light I have ever seen or that I think
anyone has ever seen. It blasted; it pounced; it bore its way right
thorough you. It was a vision which was seen with more than the
eye. It was seen to last forever. You would wish it would stop;
altogether it lasted about two seconds.... A new thing had just
been born; a new control; a new understanding of man, which man
had acquired over nature."
(From Richard Rhodes, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb")
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