5 Most Colossal Nuclear Explosions Ever Captured On Camera

[Ichingcarpenter]

This is the big one

An explosion to leave you dumbstruck, the Tsar Bomba, developed by the USSR and detonated on October 30, 1961 over the Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya, is by far the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested, and the single most potent explosive ever used by man. This behemoth H bomb’s yield of 50 megatons was equivalent to 10 times the total explosives used in WWII, including both Little Boy and Fat Man, the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


The Tsar Bomba’s facts speak for themselves. Designed to detonate at a height of 2.5 miles (4 km), its fireball was so huge it touched the ground while almost reaching the altitude of the deploying bomber 6.5 miles (10.5 km) in the air. Like a new sun, the dazzling orb was seen and felt almost 620 miles (1,000 km) from ground zero, and the heat from its initial flash could have caused third degree burns as far as 100 km (62 miles) away


Videos and more photos here

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/most-colossal-nuclear-explosions-captured-camera/17875

[enlightenment]

1. I have an extraordinary coffee table type book with photos

of every US bomb test (including Hiroshima and Nagasaki). I use it as a kind of show and tell during in my US history lectures for the period. It's called "100 Suns".

http://www.amazon.com/100-Suns-Michael-Light/dp/1400041139

It is amazing that something so deadly can be so beautiful. Thank you for the link.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. My Father worked on the original Nuclear Test Band Treaty in 63

I didn't see him for a month

From the JFK libarary

The Treaty:
prohibits nuclear weapons tests or other nuclear explosions under water, in the atmosphere, or in outer space
allows underground nuclear tests as long as no radioactive debris falls outside the boundaries of the nation conducting the test
pledges signatories to work towards complete disarmament, an end to the armaments race, and an end to the contamination of the environment by radioactive substances.

Background
The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs marked the end of World War II and the beginning of the nuclear age. As tensions between East and West settled into a Cold War, scientists in the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union conducted tests and developed more powerful and efficient nuclear weapons. But, as scientists and the public gradually became aware of the dangers of radioactive fallout, they began to raise their voices against nuclear testing. In 1959, radioactive deposits were found in wheat and milk in the northern United States. Backed by growing public sentiment against nuclear testing, leaders and diplomats of several countries sought to address the issue.

Attempts to Negotiate a Treaty
In May of 1955, under the auspices of the U.N. Disarmament Commission, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and the Soviet Union began negotiations to end nuclear weapon testing. Diplomats disagreed about whether to link a ban on testing to general arms control. Conflict over inspections to verify underground testing impeded later talks because the Soviet Union feared that on-site inspections could lead to spying that might expose the fact that Khrushchev had vastly exaggerated the number of deliverable Soviet nuclear weapons. As negotiators struggled over differences, the Soviet Union and the United States suspended nuclear tests -- a moratorium that lasted from November 1958 to September 1961.

Kennedy Opposes Testing
John F. Kennedy had supported a ban on nuclear weapons testing since 1956. Believing a ban would prevent other countries from obtaining nuclear weapons, he took a strong stand on the issue in the 1960 presidential campaign. Once elected, President Kennedy pledged not to resume testing in the air and promised to pursue all diplomatic efforts for a test ban treaty before resuming underground testing. He envisioned the test ban as a first step to nuclear disarmament.

Kennedy and Khrushchev Meet
President Kennedy met with Soviet Premier Khrushchev in Vienna in June 1961, just five weeks after the humiliating defeat of the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Khrushchev took a hard line at the summit. He announced his intention of cutting off Western access to Berlin; and threatened war if the United States or its allies tried to stop him. Many U.S. diplomats felt that Kennedy had not stood up to the Soviet Premier at the summit, therefore, giving Khrushchev the impression that he was a weak leader.

Pressure to Resume Testing
Fearing secret underground testing by the Soviet Union and gains in Soviet nuclear technology, political and military advisors pressured Kennedy to resume testing. And, according to a July 1961 Gallup poll, the public approved testing by a margin of two-to-one.
In August 1961, the Soviet Union announced its intention to resume atmospheric testing, and over the next 3 months it conducted 31 nuclear tests. It exploded the largest nuclear bomb in history—58 megatons—4,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Discouraged and dismayed by the Soviet tests, President Kennedy pursued diplomatic efforts before allowing renewed testing by the United States.


Link:
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/Nuclear+Test+Ban+Treaty.htm


I'm from a real nuclear family,
was even born at the base of Nuclear endeavors
in New Mexico


I've seen what nuclear mining has done to the Navajo


Glad you like it.

[enlightenment]

4. I am probably older than you - a military brat.

I grew up during the height of the Cold War. My dad flew SAC bombers and commanded "Looking Glass".

I am well aware of ALL the reasons why nukes are not a good idea. I have stood in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and studied the history and politics for many, many years.

I've protested them consistently and firmly believe that every nuclear arsenal in the world should be dismantled. My belief that the photographs of these explosions are beautiful - in the same way that many deadly things are beautiful - doesn't change my feelings in any way, shape, or form. Young people today are frightfully unaware of the truth and consequences of nuclear weapons and showing them pictures that they perceive as beautiful - while juxtaposing the truth of what they are - is an effective method of getting their attention.

Your attitude is off-base, juvenile, and insulting. If I were inclined to use vulgarity in a post, this would be the point where I'd tell you exactly where you can put your moral high-horse.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. I liked it too.... in the same way you did

We are on the same wave length

I think the info at the site on the strength of these bombs will alter consciousness after viewing the new photos released on happened
at Hiroshima and Nagasaki ..... you can google it

I think we haven't got the consciousness as humans yet
to understand the power of E=MC2

Time and Space are now integrated as one constant.
Mass can now be created, the equation is not a one way street.

I'm sorry you read my post wrong..... I guess I wasn't clear.

[enlightenment]

9. I apologize.

I can see I over-reacted. The level of barely veiled hostility on DU has gotten so intense that I'm jumping at shadows - you didn't deserve that response.

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. I'm working on

climate change right now and nuclear
is not the answer.

I read your posts...

We can do better as you and I know.

LOL..... imagine a gun forum on nuclear bombs.

[enlightenment]

12. We could do better - if we'd stop convincing ourselves that

we can't do better.

As Kenneth Bainbridge said after the Trinity test, "now we are all sons of bitches" . . . and that is a continued truth as long as we, as a species, continue to find justifications for maintaining and expanding the world's nuclear arsenal. It's bad enough that we don't know what to do with the nuclear waste from power plants - I shudder to think of how volatile these aging nuclear bombs are going to get.

*sigh*

(and a gun forum for nukes? YIKES! lol)

[GreenStormCloud]

3. I remember the Tsar Bomba, although not by that name.

Russia had announced that they would test the giant bomb. All the free nations of the world asked them not to. They did anyway.

The above ground test ban treaty came a year or two after that.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. It was exploded High up

It created a real artificial sun

google that fucker.....yikes

[GreenStormCloud]

13. A few years ago I watched a video about it.

The plane barely escaped the blast. It has been a long time since I saw the video. I will look it up, to be thankful that the world has retreated from that particular kind of madness.

[Thothmes]

15. At the pre flight briefing, the Russian pilot and crew

were told that they may not be able to escape the bombs detonation. They flew the mission anyway. Dedicated aviators.

[pokerfan]

17. Tsar Bomba

The Tsar Bomba detonated at 11:32 on October 30, 1961 over the Mityushikha Bay nuclear testing range (Sukhoy Nos Zone C), north of the Arctic Circle on Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea. The bomb was dropped from an altitude of 10.5 kilometres; it was designed to detonate at a height of 4 kilometres over the land surface.

The original U.S. estimate of the yield was 57 Mt, but since 1991 all Russian sources have stated its yield as 50 Mt. Khrushchev warned in a filmed speech to the Communist parliament of the existence of a 100 Mt bomb (technically the design was capable of this yield). The fireball touched the ground, reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane, and was seen and felt almost 1,000 kilometres from ground zero. The heat from the explosion could have caused third degree burns 100 km away from ground zero. The subsequent mushroom cloud was about 64 kilometres high (nearly seven times higher than Mount Everest) and 40 kilometres wide. The explosion could be seen and felt in Finland, breaking windows there and in Sweden. Atmospheric focusing caused blast damage up to 1,000 kilometres away. The seismic shock created by the detonation was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth. Its seismic body wave magnitude was about 5 to 5.25. The energy yield was around 7.1 on the Richter scale, but since the bomb was detonated in air rather than underground, most of the energy was not converted to seismic waves.

Since 50 Mt is 2.1×10¹⁷ joules, the average power produced during the entire fission-fusion process, lasting around 39 nanoseconds, was about 5.4×10²⁴ watts or 5.4 yottawatts. This is equivalent to approximately 1.4% of the power output of the Sun.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwlNPhn64TA">

[pansypoo53219]

5. i find mushroom clouds so beautiful in a terrible way.

i did a pastel of one. would be cool to do oils. or acrylics. but...

[Odin2005]

8. Imagine if the Tsar Bomba had been dropped on NYC!

:scared:

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. You would be dead

because of the Jet Stream

[cowcommander]

19. Never would've happened

Tsar Bomba was impractical saber rattling that had no real practical application as a tactical nuke. MIRVs are far deadlier and more effective.

[Fumesucker]

14. Isaac Asimov wrote a story about the first ever nuclear explosion..

It was called "Hell Fire".

It is very short, only a few paragraphs.. And yet it tells us everything we need to know about nuclear weapons.

http://www.tep-online.info/short/hell.htm

There was a stir as of a very polite first-night audience. Only a handful of scientists were present, a sprinkling of high brass, some Congressmen, a few newsmen.
Alvin Horner of the Washington Bureau of the Continental Press found himself next to Joseph Vincenzo of Los Alarnos, and said, "Now we ought to learn something."
Vincenzo stared at him through bifocals and said, "Not the important thing." Horner frowned. This was to be the first super-slow-motion films of an atomic explosion. With trick lenses changing directional polarisation in flickers, the moment of explosion would be divided into billionth-second snaps. Yesterday, an A-bomb had exploded. Today, those snaps would show the explosion in incredible detail.

<snip>

Read the rest at the link.

[Saboburns]

16. I am fascinated by this topic.

I adore these pics and videos. The amount of energy released by a big boomer is hard to comprehend.

I am a geek about this stuff!!

[lonestarnot]

18. Nasty. Wonder how much wildlife was scorched for this crap.