The biggest explosion in water. The most powerful explosions in human history (9 photos)
What is a terrorist attack? In other words, this is the commission of an explosion, shooting, arson or other similar actions that frighten the population and necessarily create a danger of human death.
This article will talk about the terrible world tragedies that were a consequence of the actions of bandit groups and led to numerous losses among the population. The article provides a list of the largest terrorist attacks in the world.
Responsibility for such disasters, as a rule, is taken by groups hiding behind Islam.
Top 10 loudest of the 21st century
Here is a list of the world's largest tragedies by number of victims.
1. September 2004 terrorist attack in Beslan North Ossetia. As a result, 335 people were killed (including 186 children), 2000 were injured.
2. March 2004 - the largest terrorist attack in Europe since the 2nd World War, committed in 4 Madrid trains (Spain). A total of 192 people were killed and 2,000 were injured.
4. One of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in Pakistan occurred in October 2007. The result was 140 dead and 500 wounded.
5. In October 2002, on Dubrovka in Moscow, during a performance of a musical called “Nord-Ost,” a group of armed militants killed 130 people. More than 900 people became hostages.
6. The world's largest terrorist attack occurred in the United States of America in 2001 on September 11th. The militants' actions (4 passenger planes were hijacked) resulted in 2,973 casualties.
7. In September 1999, an explosion occurred on the street. Guryanov in a 9-story building in Moscow. As a result, 92 people were killed and 264 were injured.
Another explosion 3 days later, also in a residential building, claimed 124 lives and injured 9 people.
8. As a result of the militant attack in June 1995 on the city of Budenovsk, 129 people were killed and 415 were injured. More than 1,600 hostages were taken to hospitals.
9. The explosion of a Boeing 747 flight from London to New York over Scotland in December 1988 killed 270 passengers and crew members.
10. The crash of a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula in 2015 killed 224 people.
Below are more detailed description some of the most tragic terrorist attacks.
Twin Towers
Let's look at the largest terrorist attacks abroad using the example of 2 events that brought a huge number of victims, especially among American citizens.
The day of September 11th became a mourning day for all residents of this country and people around the world. Terrorists numbering 11 (the international territorial organization Al-Qaeda), divided into 4 groups, hijacked four passenger airliners in the United States and sent 2 of them to the New York Twin Towers of a large shopping center.
Both towers were collapsed along with adjacent buildings. The 3rd plane was directed towards the Pentagon building (not far from Washington). The crew of the 4th plane, together with the passengers of the flight, tried to escape by seizing control of the airliner from the terrorists. However, it crashed in Pennsylvania (Shanksville).
The largest terrorist attack in history claimed a total of 2,973 lives (including 60 police officers and 343 firefighters). The exact amount of damage caused is unknown (about $500 billion).
"Boeing 747"
As a result of the Boeing 747 crash over Scotland in 1988, 259 passengers and crew members and 11 residents of the town were killed.
It was an American PanAmerican plane flying from London to New York. This terrible disaster turned out to be tragic for some residents of Lockerbie, due to the destruction of the liner on the ground. Among the dead were mainly citizens of Great Britain and the United States.
Charges were brought against 2 Libyans, although the state itself did not officially admit guilt. However, it paid compensation to the families of the victims of this tragedy (Lockerbie).
In connection with the events that took place, in 1992 the UN Security Council introduced laws against the regime of M. Gaddafi international sanctions, which were removed.
During all this time, many assumptions have been made about the involvement of senior representatives of the Libyan leadership in organizing that disaster, but none of them (except the guilt former employee intelligence services of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi) was not proven by the court.
These two cases represent the largest terrorist attacks in the world.
Tragedy in Beslan
Russia has suffered a huge number of terrorist attacks, which resulted in many casualties among innocent civilians, including children.
The terrible tragedy in Beslan (North Ossetia) is the world's largest terrorist attack, which claimed the lives of a huge number of children.
On September 1, a detachment of terrorists (30 people) under the leadership of R. Khachbarov seized the building of school No. 1, where he held 1,128 people hostage (mostly children). The next day (September 2), the ex-president of the Republic of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, whom the bandits allowed into the school building, managed to persuade the invaders to release about 25 women with small children and release with him.
Everything happened spontaneously. When in the middle of the day a car drove into the school site with the aim of picking up the corpses of people killed by bandits, several explosions were suddenly heard in the building itself, after which shooting began from all sides. Women and children began to jump out of the opening in the wall and out of the windows. At that time, all the men in the school had already been killed by terrorists.
The surviving children and women were released.
"Nord-Ost"
Many of the world's largest terrorist attacks involved the taking of huge numbers of hostages. This happened in Moscow on October 23, 2002 (21:15).
Militants led by M. Baraev broke into the Theater Center, located on Dubrovka (Melnikova Street), during the performance of “Nord-Ost”. There were only 916 people in the building at that time (including approximately 100 children).
The room was completely mined by the militants. Attempts to establish contact with them were successful, and after a certain time, State Duma deputy I. Kobzon, journalist M. Franchetti and 2 doctors from the Red Cross were able to enter the seized building. Thanks to their actions, 1 woman and three children were taken out of the building.
On the evening of October 24, the Al-Jazeera TV channel showed Barayev. This video was recorded before the theater center was captured. In it, the terrorists presented themselves as suicide bombers, and their demand was to withdraw Russian troops from Chechnya.
On October 26, special forces carried out an assault using nerve gas, after which they captured the building, and the terrorists, along with the leader, were completely destroyed (50 people). Among them were women (18). Three bandits were detained.
A total of 130 people died.
Statistics on victims of terrorist attacks over the past 10 years
Over the past 10 years, more than 6 thousand terrorist attacks have occurred worldwide. More than 25 thousand people became their victims.
Currently, according to various expert estimates, there are approximately 500 extremist groups and terrorist organizations. The worrying fact is that in Lately More and more often, the targets of these gangster formations are places of mass gathering of citizens (remember the largest terrorist attack in the world).
Also, so-called “technological terrorism” is increasingly taking place, where the latest developments and technologies are used. In addition, recently there has been an increase in extremism among young people. Foreign citizens of different ethnic backgrounds are increasingly becoming targets of attacks.
2015 terrorist attack
The world's largest terrorist attack in the air occurred recently - in 2015 in the skies over Egypt.
The terrible accident with the Airbus-A321 aircraft (Russian airline Kogalymavia) was a shock for the entire society.
During the flight, a homemade explosive device with a power of up to 1 kg was detonated on board the airliner. into TNT. equivalent. This happened on October 31st. A total of 224 people died. After this tragedy, the Federal Air Transport Agency suspended regular, transit and charter passenger flights to Egypt from November 6.
A group from the banned Sinai wilayat (province) took responsibility for the crime. Islamic State"(IS) in Russia.
What happened on the peninsula is one of the bloodiest in the world.
Conclusion
In the 21st century, terrorism has become quite active and more sophisticated. Numerous news about tragedies fill the press and television channels. Almost every month (or even more often) terrible attacks are committed all over the planet, claiming the lives of civilians. This kind of action is a disease of the earth. Attempts by some authorities to protect the population from such disasters have so far been unsuccessful.
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Liquid oxygen and kerosene from the operating engines of the Atlas LV-3C Centaur-C rocket combined in a cloud of fire and destroyed the rocket and the launch facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
2. Operation Sailor Hat, 1965
A series of tests by the US Navy that were carried out in 1965 on Kahoolawe Island, Hawaii. During the tests, the impact of nuclear explosions on warships was simulated. Charges with a capacity of 450 tons were used as explosives.
The explosion of one of the four N1 rockets that the USSR planned to launch to the moon. The explosion of 680 tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene released about 29 TeraJules of energy, equal to the power of the Hiroshima explosion. It was the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history.
113,000 liters of liquid propane and isobutane explode after a train crash in Murdock, Illinois, USA.
One of the most terrible man-made disasters in history, was caused by a series of explosions at Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). This is a liquefied petroleum gas plant in San Juanico, Mexico. The explosion destroyed everything on an area of 11,000 m3. The plant was located within the city. The explosion devastated the city. More than five hundred people died and thousands suffered severe burns.
The US Department of Defense and the Nuclear Energy Agency conducted a test that simulated the explosion of a nuclear weapon by detonating 4.8 kilotons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil in New Mexico. It was the largest planned, non-nuclear explosion in history.
Almost 5 million liters of rocket fuel + ammonium perchlorate + oxidizer exploded at a rocket fuel plant in Nevada. As a result, 2.7 kilotons of energy in TNT equivalent were released. In total there were two large and five smaller explosions. The disaster killed two people and injured 372.
8. Test "MOAB", 2003
MOAB - Mother Of All Bombs or mother of all bombs. This is the most powerful explosion of the largest non-nuclear bomb produced by the United States.
A series of major explosions at one of the largest oil depots in the UK. About 270 million liters of fuel burned and exploded. Explosions were felt even in France and the Netherlands. Fortunately, no one died.
Zenit 3SL, an unmanned rocket loaded with liquid oxygen and kerosene, would carry the satellite into orbit from the Odysey platform in the open sea. Needless to say, this did not happen, everything is visible.
FOAB - Father of all bombs. The father of all bombs. Russia's most powerful non-nuclear bomb, which was calculated to be four times more powerful than the MOAB.
October 30, 1961, unlike April 12, was not included in the political calendars of the USSR as a day of national pride for the Soviet people, although there was something to be proud of. About that record - ominous, of course, but in many ways forced - soviet people They never found out, just as not everyone knows about him now.
We are talking about an event in the history of domestic scientific and technological progress, which dramatically affected the course of " cold war"between two nuclear powers. That day, a second sun lit up in the clear sky over Novaya Zemlya. It burned for 70 seconds, illuminating the huge snow-covered archipelago with a piercing, blinding light. It was the world's most powerful thermonuclear air explosion - over 50 megatons of TNT equivalent.
Work on the creation of the AN602 thermonuclear bomb began in the early 50s under the leadership of academicians Kurchatov and Khariton (by the way, academician and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, often called by Western propaganda “the father of the Russian hydrogen bomb,” was only one of the team members). The first test of the Soviet thermonuclear weapons took place on August 12, 1953 - Stalin did not live to see this for only six months. The new nuclear device, according to the tradition adopted in the Union, received the code name “Vanya”, and more officially - “Ivan”. However, the creation of a bomb and its testing in a ground version in itself did not solve the issue of eliminating a potential enemy, because for effective use it was necessary to deliver the bomb to the point of use. And the carrier of a 100-megaton thermonuclear munition had to meet the relevant requirements: have a large payload, range, speed and flight altitude. After appropriate consultations between nuclear scientists and aviators, it was proposed to use the developments in creating the Tu-95 aircraft.
They began preparing for the explosion of the Tsar Bomba five years before the scheduled date. In the language of military nuclear scientists, it was called very prosaically - “product 202”, but had hitherto unprecedented dimensions: an eight-meter bomb with a diameter of two meters weighed 26 tons. To lift such a colossus into the air, a special modification of the Tu-95 long-range strategic bomber was required.
And now this day “H” has come. On October 30, at 9:27 a.m., the commander of the airship, Major Andrei Durnovtsev, lifted the super-heavy vehicle into the air. Following him, the Tu-16 backup plane took off. In one formation they moved along a strictly secret route to the dumping area on Novaya Zemlya.
Before dropping the superbomb, the backup plane went 15 kilometers ahead in order to avoid unnecessary risk. Major Durnovtsev and his entire crew of eight people had to face an explosion in the air unprecedented in the history of the planet. No one could guarantee their safe return.
The head of the testing department of the Novaya Zemlya test site, Serafim Mikhailovich Kulikov, says:
“The crucial moment came - from a flight altitude of 10,500 meters at 11:30 a.m., a bomb was dropped on target D-2 in the Matochkina Shar area. The crew’s tension reached its climax - what will happen next? The separation of 26 tons of cargo from the aircraft was very noticeable for the crew: a vibration effect appeared on the plane, that is, according to the pilots, the plane “sat on its tail.” By the intervention of the pilot, the effect was countered - all the attention of the crew was focused on monitoring the separated product.
According to reports from the Tu-95 and Tu-16 crews, as well as from recording equipment records, the superbomb separated from the Tu-95 carrier aircraft, and the parachute system began to be deployed. Finally, it happened - at the 188th second after the superbomb separated from the plane, the island of Novaya Zemlya was illuminated by a glow of unprecedented brightness.
The flare was observed for 65-70 seconds, and the very bright part of it was observed for 25-30 seconds. The explosion of the product occurred on command from barometric sensors, as planned, at an altitude of 4000 meters above the target. At the time of the outbreak, the carrier aircraft was 40 kilometers away from the explosion, and the backup aircraft (laboratory) was 55 kilometers away. After the end of the light exposure, the autopilots on the planes were turned off - in anticipation of the arrival of the shock wave, they switched to manual control. The shock wave affected the aircraft many times, starting from a distance of 115 kilometers from the explosion for the carrier and 250 kilometers for the backup aircraft. The impact of the shock wave was quite noticeable for the crews, but did not cause any difficulties in piloting.”
Nevertheless, the pilots experienced many unpleasant moments. During the outbreak, the cabins, closed with light-proof curtains, became hot, a burning smell appeared, and smoke wafted from the navigator-bombardier's workplace.
- Are we on fire? - the ship commander clarified.
Fortunately, it soon became clear that there was no fire - only dust and fluff flared up, and the winding of the bundles located between the glazing and the light-protective curtains began to smoke. The worst part was in the aft cabin, facing directly towards the explosion. It was so hot there that the air gunner's face and hands burned.
“When filming the development of the explosion cloud, the approach of a shock wave was observed in the form of an expanding bluish sphere. It was visible passing through the aircraft. By the time the shock wave arrived, the autopilot was turned off. Piloting the aircraft continued in the mode manual control. The plane was affected by three shock waves - the first after 1 minute. 37 sec. after the explosion, the second after 1 minute. 52 sec. and the third after 2 minutes. 37 sec. The first wave was the most noticeable - a powerful blow shook the plane. The pilots countered the vibration of the steering wheel, but no change in the pitch or roll angle of the aircraft was observed. Subsequent waves were less powerful, and the impact of the third was perceived as a weak push from the aircraft. As shock waves passed through the aircraft, barometric instruments (altitudes, flight speeds and variometers), which were connected to the atmosphere, began to give increased readings, their needles moved several times different sides. The process of development of the explosion cloud lasted for 8-9 minutes, the height of its upper edge reached 15-16 km, diameter 30-40 km. The color of the cloud was purple, and the stem-leg was bluish-gray. The cloudiness (usual) at the base of the radioactive cloud trunk was noticeably drawn into it. After 10-12 minutes. after the explosion, the dome of the cloud began to stretch with the wind, and after 15 minutes. the cloud took on an elongated shape."
The Tu-16 laboratory aircraft under the command of Major K. Lyasnikov received a truly suicidal mission: to set a course for a fireball and study how a nuclear explosion affects an aircraft. And he went to complete the task. It’s hard to imagine what kind of nerves you had to have to fly the plane towards the worst thing that could happen on planet Earth. Lyasnikov says:
“After the explosion, we saw the usual bright light. But it’s one thing to immediately turn the plane around and another thing to go straight to the flash. I see there’s no mushroom yet, only the fireball is going wild, swelling. Then it becomes the size of a kilometer or more, already with dirty spots. A black pillar picks it up and throws it up. You have to return urgently - otherwise death. And the ball-cloud is almost there. When absolute hell is unfolding right next to your eyes, believe me, there is no time for delight... This, I tell you, is worse, than in a horror movie... Should I follow the instructions at such a moment? I make a seventy-degree bank - I make an unthinkable turn at an altitude of eleven thousand meters. And this saves..."
Not everyone's nerves survived this test. One of the pilots who went to the nuclear “thunderstorm” honestly admitted to the head of the testing department S. Kulikov:
“Seraphim, don’t scold or shame me - they couldn’t complete the task completely. A seething wall of fire formed ahead of us along the flight. Our nerves couldn’t stand it, and we turned around the explosion cloud at a distance far from the set one.”
The most powerful explosion on the planet bore the serial number 130. It was the most ambitious military propaganda campaign of the century, and perhaps in the entire history of mankind: after all, the explosion of a superbomb was timed to coincide with the next 22nd Congress of the CPSU. His delegates had no idea about the gift that their native defense industry had prepared for them.
A well-known expert on the Arctic, who worked in the hydrometeorological service of the Northern Sea Route on Dikson for more than twenty years, Nikolai Grigorievich Babich knows well how that long-standing record explosion came back to haunt the North.
"The blast wave circled three times Earth. Then for so many years we took people away from the islands of the Kara Sea, covered with a radioactive cloud. However, no one wanted to diagnose radiation sickness... People were treated somehow. But thousands of polar bears died from overexposure. Today the surface of the islands does not “phonate” at all. But those 5-6 million curies thrown into the Arctic sky by that explosion have not gone away. They were scattered throughout the world. And the half-life of this nasty thing is hundreds of years..."
Renowned Cold War historian Rear Admiral Georgy Kostev says:
“Only fifty megatons exploded over Matochkin’s Ball. And initially they planned to have all of a hundred. But scientists began to fear for the state of the earth’s crust - they wouldn’t break through...”
No one counted how many birds burned in that man-made nuclear sun. And those who survived became blind. Fishermen said that the flight of blind gulls resembled the fluttering of bats. Most of them bobbed silently on the waves, quietly dying of hunger.
The model of the "Tsar Bomb" AN602, among the creators of which was Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, is now kept in the Arzamas-16 Museum. The head of one of the local research institutes, Colonel General Negin, told English television reporters that the Sakharovites, inspired by the super-powerful explosion, proposed to Khrushchev a super-project codenamed “Armageddon”: to send a ship filled with 100 megatons of TNT equivalent deuterium to the Atlantic. Sheathe it with sheets of cobalt so that when the metal evaporates in the nuclear heat, a powerful radioactive contamination will occur. Khrushchev thought and thought... And refused.
The AN602 thermonuclear aerial bomb is the most powerful explosive device used by mankind in history. Work on its creation was carried out for more than seven years, from the autumn of 1954 to the autumn of 1961. AN602 had a three-stage design: the first stage nuclear charge (calculated contribution to the explosion power was 1.5 megatons) launched a thermo nuclear reaction in the second stage (contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the nuclear “Jekyll-Hyde reaction” (fission of nuclei in uranium-238 blocks under the influence of fast neutrons generated as a result of the thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stages (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total design power of the AN602 was 101.5 megatons. The original design of the bomb was rejected due to the extremely high levels of radioactive contamination it would cause, so it was decided not to use the Jekyll-Hyde reaction in the bomb's third stage and to replace the uranium components with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total power of the explosion by almost half.
The bomb showed a power greater than calculated - 57 megatons. At the same time, competing development teams made bombs of 25 and 100 megatons, but they were never tested. And thank God.
The explosion of AN602 was classified as a low air explosion of extremely high power. The results were impressive:
- The fireball of the explosion reached a radius of approximately 4.6 kilometers. Theoretically, it could have grown to the surface of the earth, but this was prevented by the reflected shock wave, which crushed the bottom of the ball and threw the ball off the ground.
- The light radiation could potentially cause third-degree burns at a distance of up to 100 kilometers.
- The nuclear mushroom of the explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers; the diameter of its two-tier “hat” reached (at the top tier) 95 kilometers.
- Tangible seismic wave, resulting from the explosion, circled the globe three times.
- Witnesses felt the impact and were able to describe the explosion at a distance of thousands of kilometers from its center.
- The sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dikson Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers.
- The power of the explosion exceeded the total power of all explosives used during the First and Second World Wars, including the two American atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (16 kilotons and 21 kilotons, respectively).
The hydrogen bomb remains the most destructive weapon: according to experts, an explosion with a power of 20 megatons can level all residential buildings within a radius of 24 km and destroy all life at a distance of 140 km from the epicenter.
This small explosion with a TNT equivalent capacity of 24 tons (in fact, there were two explosions - the first three tons, the second 21 tons) is already in full swing as the largest non-nuclear explosion in the history of mankind. Which of course is absolute nonsense.
There have been many explosions in history, an order of magnitude, two orders of magnitude, and even three orders of magnitude stronger than what happened at night. Officially, the most powerful, pre-planned non-nuclear explosion is considered to be the British bombing of the fortifications of the German island of Heligoland on April 18, 1947, when 6,700 tons of explosives were used (4,000 torpedo warheads, 9,000 depth charges, 91,000 various artillery shells). The power of the explosion was 3.2 kt TNT
Thus, the power of the Helgoland explosion was four times less than the power of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. It is clear that no one was injured in the explosion, and the explosion itself was documented in detail. The island was returned to Germany in 1952. Now this is a resort place where, please note, the use of bicycles is prohibited.
However, in 1985-93 in the United States, a series of 5 non-nuclear explosions were carried out at the White Sands test site in New Mexico, the power of two of which, known as Minority Scale and Minority Picture, exceeded the power of the explosion at Heligoland: 4,304 kt June 27, 1985 years and 4.25 kt on May 14, 1987.
But the very “bagaboom”, which had nothing to do with the fission reaction of uranium nuclei, occurred in the USSR, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 3, 1969, during the second launch of the Soviet “lunar” launch vehicle N-1. The launch of the rocket went normally, but at an altitude of 200 meters, the engines of the first stage began to turn off one after another, the last, 18th, turned the rocket 90 degrees and at the 23rd second of the flight it fell flat on the launch pad. As a result of the explosion, the power of which is estimated at 5 kt of TNT equivalent in our country, and in the west (based on the amount of fuel on board the rocket) at 7 kt, the launch pad was destroyed and the neighboring one was severely damaged.
It should be noted that all four N-1 launches ended in accidents, but only in the second case did the explosion of the entire rocket occur directly on the ground.
What’s interesting is that during the four most powerful non-nuclear explosions in human history, not a single person was injured.
The largest "unorganized" explosions in peacetime are the explosion of ammonium nitrate cargo on the cargo ship "Grandcamp", which occurred in Texas City on April 16, 1947 (just two days before the explosion in Heligoland), the power of which is estimated at 2.7-3.2 ct TNT, as a result of which and subsequent fires in the city on the Gulf Coast killed 581 people and injured another 8,451, as well as a series of explosions at the Cyprus naval base Evangelos Florakis on July 11, 2011, with a total of approximately the same power. In the case of the recent explosion, during which 13 people were killed and another 62 were injured, there was enchanting carelessness - 98 containers of explosives were stored in the bright sun, where they were heated in 40 degree heat for several days.
IN war time The most terrible explosion was the famous explosion in Halifax, Canada on December 6, 1917, when the French transport Mont Blanc, filled to capacity with explosives, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. The force of the explosion was 2.9 kt TNT. 2,000 people were killed and another 9,000 were injured. For information, the population of the city of Halifax at that time was 50 thousand people.
A column of smoke after an explosion in Halifax.
Interestingly, this city had to experience something similar again when, on July 18, 1945, ammunition detonated at the Bedford Arsenal in the outskirts of the city. However, in this case there were only a few lightly wounded.
However, the Halifax explosion is far from the deadliest of all non-nuclear explosions in history.
If we talk about a separate explosion, then the explosion of the Turkish arsenal in the Rhodes Fortress on April 4, 1856 is certainly one of them. The Turks used orthodox churches, located on the territory of the palace as warehouses for gunpowder. One fine morning, as the church bells rang, the gunpowder detonated. Approximately 4,000 people died.
But the most terrible non-nuclear explosion in terms of consequences was carried out by the British on June 7, 1917 on the hills of Messina, when during the Battle of Passchendaele under German positions 22 charges with a capacity of 9.1 to 43.4 tons of explosives (455 tons in total) were simultaneously detonated. The total German losses amounted to 10 thousand people.
The first truly Big Bang apparently occurred on April 4, 1585 during the Spanish siege of Anteverp. At that time, the Spaniards occupied a large stone bridge at the entrance to the city, which prevented the Dutch (they later became Belgians) from receiving supplies along the Scheldt. Then the besieged equipped four huge fireships, each displacing 800 tons. Three did not reach the target, but the last fourth one swam to the bridge, but did not immediately explode. The Spaniards decided to capture it and at that moment the explosives detonated. Up to 800 Castilians died, a small tsunami went up the Scheldt, and a black cloud covered the city. The earth shook noticeably 35 kilometers from Antwerp, in Ghent.
Explosion in Antwerp. French engraving from 1727.
Just like that, and you are Tianjin, Tianjin...
Since the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, more than 2,051 other nuclear weapons tests have been recorded around the world.
No other force represents such absolute destruction as nuclear weapons. And this type of weapon quickly becomes even more powerful over the decades after the first test.
The nuclear bomb test in 1945 had a yield of 20 kilotons, meaning the bomb had an explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT. Over the course of 20 years, the United States and the USSR tested nuclear weapons with a total mass of more than 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of TNT. For scale, this is at least 500 times stronger than the first atomic bomb. To bring the size of the largest nuclear explosions in history to scale, the data was derived using Alex Wellerstein's Nukemap, a tool for visualizing the horrific effects of a nuclear explosion in the real world.
In the maps shown, the first explosion ring is a fireball, followed by a radiation radius. The pink radius displays almost all building destruction and 100% fatalities. In the gray radius, stronger buildings will withstand the explosion. In the orange radius, people will suffer third-degree burns and flammable materials will ignite, leading to possible firestorms.
The largest nuclear explosions
Soviet tests 158 and 168
On August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month apart, the USSR conducted nuclear tests over the Novaya Zemlya region of Russia, an archipelago in northern Russia near the Arctic Ocean.
No videos or photographs of the tests remain, but both tests involved the use of 10-megaton atomic bombs. These explosions would have burned everything within 1.77 square miles at ground zero, causing third-degree burns to victims in an area of 1,090 square miles.
Ivy Mike
On November 1, 1952, the United States conducted an Ivy Mike test over the Marshall Islands. Ivy Mike was the world's first hydrogen bomb and had a yield of 10.4 megatons, 700 times more powerful than the first atomic bomb.
Ivy Mike's explosion was so powerful that it vaporized the island of Elugelab where it was blown up, leaving a 164-foot deep crater in its place.
Castle Romeo
Romeo was the second nuclear explosion in a series of tests carried out by the United States in 1954. All explosions took place at Bikini Atoll. Romeo was the third most powerful test of the series and had a yield of approximately 11 megatons.
Romeo was the first to be tested on a barge in open waters rather than on a reef, as the US was quickly running out of islands on which to test nuclear weapons. The explosion will burn everything within 1.91 square miles.
Soviet Test 123
October 23, 1961 Soviet Union conducted nuclear test No. 123 over Novaya Zemlya. Test 123 was a 12.5 megaton nuclear bomb. A bomb this size would burn everything within 2.11 square miles, causing third-degree burns to people over an area of 1,309 square miles. This test also left no records.
Castle Yankee
Castle Yankee, the second most powerful of the series of tests, was conducted on May 4, 1954. The bomb had a yield of 13.5 megatons. Four days later, its radioactive fallout reached Mexico City, a distance of about 7,100 miles.
Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo was carried out on February 28, 1954, was the first of a series of Castle tests and the largest US nuclear explosion of all time.
Bravo was originally intended to be a 6-megaton explosion. Instead, the bomb produced a 15-megaton explosion. His mushroom reached 114,000 feet in the air.
The US military's miscalculation resulted in the radiation exposure of approximately 665 Marshallese residents and the death from radiation exposure of a Japanese fisherman who was 80 miles from the explosion site.
Soviet tests 173, 174 and 147
From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR conducted a series of nuclear tests over Novaya Zemlya. Test 173, 174, 147 and all stand out as fifth, fourth, and third strongest nuclear explosions in history.
All three explosions produced had a power of 20 Megatons, or about 1000 times stronger than the Trinity nuclear bomb. A bomb of this strength would destroy everything within three square miles in its path.
Test 219, Soviet Union
On December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted test No. 219, with a yield of 24.2 megatons, over Novaya Zemlya. A bomb of this strength can burn everything within 3.58 square miles, causing third-degree burns in an area of up to 2,250 square miles.
Tsar bomb
On October 30, 1961, the USSR detonated the largest nuclear weapon ever tested and created the largest man-made explosion in history. As a result of the explosion, which is 3000 times stronger than a bomb, dropped on Hiroshima.
The flash of light from the explosion was visible 620 miles away.
The Tsar Bomba ultimately had a yield of between 50 and 58 megatons, twice the size of the second largest nuclear explosion.
A bomb of this size would create a fireball measuring 6.4 square miles and would be capable of causing third degree burns within 4,080 square miles of the bomb's epicenter.
First atomic bomb
The first atomic explosion was the size of the Tsar Bomb, and to this day the explosion is considered to be of an almost unimaginable size.
According to NukeMap, this 20-kiloton weapon produces a fireball with a radius of 260 m, approximately 5 football fields. Damage estimates indicate that the bomb would deliver lethal radiation 7 miles wide and produce third-degree burns over 12 miles. If such a bomb were used in lower Manhattan, more than 150,000 people would be killed and the fallout would extend into central Connecticut, according to NukeMap calculations.
The first atomic bomb was tiny by nuclear weapons standards. But its destructiveness is still very great for perception.
