Several years ago in the New Mexico desert I found on the ground three transparent, light green (aqua green) glass balls about the size of a jumbo marble. They were in the middle of nowhere laying on the ground. I never found anybody who could tell me what they are, can you?
2007-02-13 05:18:30 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
In what part of New Mexico did you find them and was there anything else (ruins, structures, roads) around the area? Are they hollow or solid?
They are most likely NOT from the atomic bomb tests. New Mexico's Trinity Site (where the first atomic bombs were tested) is located on the White Sands Missile Range northwest of Alamogordo and is NOT open to the public.
While sand did fuze into glass at ground zero, it tends to form sheets instead of balls and there would be lots of it around (you would definitely know if you were at the Trinity Site - it is not the sort of place you could wander on by accident).
It is a bit of stretch, but what you might have are the glass marbles left over from an antique Codd-neck bottle (named for inventor Hiram Codd). These were bottles from the pre-bottlecap days of 1870s and 80s that were sealed by a glass marble in the neck of the bottle (held in place by the pressure of the contents). You opened it by pounding something down the neck to dislodge the marble (kids used to collect the left over marbles).
They were more popular in Europe, but the were also used in the US. Your find may have represented a spot where some cowboys or prospectors stopped to take a break and a drink.
2007-02-13 13:02:03 · answer #1 · answered by sascoaz 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be anything.
It's possible that it is glass created by the detonation of the first Atomic Bomb in New Mexico. The blast's heat was so hot it turned the ground surface (all sand) into glass.
The greenish colour also leads me to believe that it is glass formed by heating of the sand.
2007-02-13 13:24:49 · answer #2 · answered by Michael Dino C 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It sounds like you found three transparent, light green (aqua green) jumbo marbles.
I wouldn't worry about it.
2007-02-13 13:28:35 · answer #3 · answered by asgspifs 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably from a lightning strike. Hopefully not, as a previous answerer postulated, from a nuke blast.
2007-02-13 13:56:15 · answer #4 · answered by gebobs 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You found my marbles??? I KNEW I'd lost them somewhere!
2007-02-13 13:52:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like they are decorative mock-Japanese fishing net floats. How they got there is anybodies guess....
2007-02-13 13:26:24 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋