On this day in 1946, the Bikini Atoll Baker nuclear test. Just look at this huge photo of it:

[Are_grits_groceries]

@pourmecoffee: On this day in 1946, the Bikini Atoll Baker nuclear test. Just look at this huge photo of it

Lawd have mercy!

[Socal31]

1. ...

"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

[Go Vols]

2. color vid

[leveymg]

3. Those little floaty thingies are war surplus battleships.

Notice the one standing straight up at the bottom of the water column - that's a battleship. But, Bikini was only a teenie weenie A-bomb about the size of the Trinity device. For scale, here are various bombs ranging up to a 50 megaton H-bomb. The thermonuclear bombs dwarf the little Bikini Atoll bugger, like an ant:

[KittyWampus]

5. you mean in the middle of the "stem"? That's a battleship?

[leveymg]

7. That's a battleship standing on its nose. There's another one in there also, a bit to the left

But note the mushroom cloud of an H-bomb is proportionally even bigger. Please see the chart I've added.

One can see why it's been essential to avoid World War III.

[KittyWampus]

8. Thanks, and thanks for the picture graph. It's very educational.

[bananas]

24. 3D simulator by historian Alex Wellerstein from the American Institute of Physics

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014545466

Wellerstein said on his blog: 'We live in a world where nuclear weapons issues are on the front pages of our newspapers on a regular basis, yet most people still have a very bad sense of what an exploding nuclear weapon can actually do.'

[bunnies]

13. This is absolutely horrifying.

holy shit.

[KittyWampus]

4. Duck and Cover.

[sharp_stick]

6. That dark smudge you can see

at the lower right part of the mushroom cloud "chimney" is an anchored ship being blown out of the water. I think this was the only shallow underwater test done. The explosion was only 90 or so feet underwater resulting in massive radioactive fallout that they couldn't scrub from the remaining ships.

I've attached another picture and a link to the youtube video.

[KittyWampus]

9. Am going to look to see if there's any recent modern photo journal of this area.

Found an article.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Paradise-With-An-Asterisk.html

[Lurks Often]

11. Most of the larger ships, especially the battleships survived the air burst

surprisingly well under the circumstances. What really did the damage in the Baker test were the waves generated by the shallow explosion.

[PowerToThePeople]

10. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud"

I know you did not control the dates, but the timing is convenient with all the NSA surveillance talk going on around here.

[Are_grits_groceries]

16. OFFS!

I see a lot of historical photos in my Twitter timeline.
I post some that I find compelling for different reasons. Nobody compelled me to post it, and that quote never entered my mind. I also had no thoughts about the NSA.

The sites that tweet them send out many different type of photos. A lot of them are historical in nature.

[PowerToThePeople]

18. I understand you had no bad intentions.

I had thought my post would have made that clear.

But images do provoke feelings, maybe even feelings you did not intent them to provoke. I was just stating what I stated to stop anyone from walking down that path of fear that caused things such as the patriot act in the first place.

[struggle4progress]

12. "Whoa, dude! That's a pretty little Pacific island! Why don't we just blast it to fuckin shreds?"

[longship]

15. That came later with Mike, and Castle Bravo tests.

Baker was an A-bomb, Mike and Bravo were H-bombs. The Castle Bravo test ran away and endangered all the observers. It exposed Japanese fisherman who suffered radiation poisoning.

Horrible things.

[bunnies]

17. I just youtubed the castle bravo test.

Thats got to be the scariest thing Ive ever seen. Geezus. I cant believe those things are legal.

[longship]

19. Castle Bravo == largest US bomb.

As I wrote, it ran away. The physicists missed an important cross-section that made it (as Richard Rhodes described) go like gangbusters.

[bunnies]

20. Is it still the largest?

My gods... I just watched the Russian Tzar test. I dont even know what to say.

[struggle4progress]

21. thanks!

[GlashFordan]

14. Captured WWII Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen

Survived two atomic bomb tests. Reminds me of a 1970's era Mercedes diesel lol

[MicaelS]

22. US Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History

By the late Chuck Hansen. If you can find a copy, I really recommend you read it.

Very rare book. You may find it at your library, but if not copies are out there if you're willing to pay the price. I spent $150 for my copy on eBay several years ago, it was an ex-Library copy and it is worth every penny. Words do not do this book justice. Detailed information on every US Nuclear Weapon at the time of publication (1988). Color and black and white pictures. Footnotes like you would not believe.

http://www.amazon.com/Us-Nuclear-Weapons-Secret-History/dp/0517567407

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Hansen

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=428361480&searchurl=an%3DChuck%2BHansen%26prl%3D10.00%26recentlyadded%3Dall%26sortby%3D1%26sts%3Dt%26tn%3DU.S.%2BNuclear%2BWeapons%253AThe%2BSecret%2BHistory%26x%3D61%26y%3D17

http://www.ebay.com/itm/U-S-Nuclear-Weapons-Secret-History-Chuck-Hansen-1988-Hardcover-/271212431345?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item3f258547f1

[DonRedwood]

23. I wish that one time had been enough.

[rug]

25. And there are still 17,300 of them ready to go.

http://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report?gclid=CLe9tfK4y7gCFYik4AodGk8AHA

[Archae]

26. The films of these tests (including the biggest, the Tsar Bomba) are here...

[El Supremo]

27. Crazy >>

[indepat]

28. Every post-WWII nuclear device manufactured and evey such device detonated have made this

such a much safer world for all living things on this fragile planet?