Since the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, over 2,051 other tests have been recorded. nuclear weapons all over the world.

No other force embodies such absolute destructive action as nuclear weapons. And this kind of weapon quickly becomes even more powerful in the decades after the first test.

The test of a nuclear bomb in 1945 had a yield of 20 kilotons, that is, the bomb had an explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT. Within 20 years, the US and the USSR tested nuclear weapons total weight more than 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of TNT. For scale, this is at least 500 times stronger than the first atomic bomb. In order to bring the size of the largest nuclear explosions in history to scale, the data was inferred using Nukemap Alex Wellerstein, 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. In the pink radius, almost all the destruction of buildings and with a fatal outcome of 100% are displayed. In the gray radius, stronger buildings will withstand the explosion. In the orange radius, people will suffer third-degree burns and combustible 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 carried out nuclear tests over the Novaya Zemlya region of Russia, an archipelago in northern Russia near the Arctic Ocean.

No video or photo footage of the tests remains, but both tests involved the use of 10-megaton atomic bombs. These explosions would incinerate 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 a test of Ivy Mike over the Marshall Islands. Ivy Mike - the first in the world H-bomb and had a yield of 10.4 megatons, which is 700 times stronger than the first atomic bomb.

Ivy Mike's explosion was so powerful that it vaporized the island of Elugelab where it was blasted, leaving a 164-foot deep crater in its place.

Castle Romeo

Romeo was the second in a series of nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1954. All of the explosions took place in Bikini Atoll. Romeo was the third most powerful test of the series and had a yield of around 11 megatons.

Romeo was the first to be tested on a barge in open waters, and not on a reef, as the US quickly ran 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 incinerate everything within 2.11 square miles, causing third-degree burns to people in an area of ​​1,309 square miles. This test also left no records.

Castle Yankee

Castle Yankee, the second most powerful of a series of tests, was carried out on May 4, 1954. The bomb had a yield of 13.5 megatons. Four days later, its decay 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 U.S. nuclear explosion of all time.

Bravo was originally envisioned as a 6-megaton explosion. Instead, the bomb produced a 15-megaton explosion. His mushroom reached 114,000 feet in the air.

The miscalculation of the US military had consequences in the amount of radiation exposure of about 665 residents of the Marshall Islands and death from radiation exposure a Japanese fisherman who was 80 miles from the explosion.

Soviet tests 173, 174 and 147

From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR conducted a series nuclear testing over New Earth. Test 173, 174, 147 and all stand out as fifth, fourth, and third strongest nuclear explosions in history.

All three explosions produced had a yield of 20 Megatons, or about 1,000 times stronger than Trinity's nuclear bomb. A bomb of this force will destroy everything in its path within three square miles.

Test 219, Soviet Union

On December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted test No. 219, with a capacity 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 up to 2250 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 between 50 and 58 megatons, twice more than a second the size of a nuclear explosion.

A bomb this size will create fire ball 6.4 square miles in size and will be able to inflict 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 the explosion is still considered to be of almost unimaginable size.

This 20-kiloton weapon produces a fireball with a radius of 260m, roughly 5 football fields, according to NukeMap. It is estimated that the bomb would emit lethal radiation 7 miles wide and produce third-degree burns over 12 miles away. If such a bomb were used in lower Manhattan, more than 150,000 people would be killed and the action radioactive fallout stretch to central Connecticut, according to NukeMap calculations.

The first atomic bomb was tiny by the standards of a nuclear weapon. But its destructiveness is still very large for perception.

Explosions can be divided into those that are non-atomic, but man-made, and atomic explosions. Among nuclear weapons, the largest is the explosion of the Tsar Bomba. There is something called the big bang theory.

The largest nuclear explosions

At the time of " cold war The phrases “nuclear bomb” and “nuclear explosion” sounded very often. Around these years, many powerful nuclear explosions were carried out.

"The Big One" is the name of one of America's most powerful hydrogen bombs. The force of the explosion exceeded the power estimated by scientists by more than three times. Because of this, both the military and locals received significant injuries, there were even deaths. The test called radioactive contamination large area of ​​the United States. This explosion was made in 1954.

It was assumed that the capacity would be equal to four to six megatons, but it turned out to be equal to fifteen megatons. The diameter of the crater from the explosion was two kilometers in diameter with a depth of seventy-five meters. A minute after the explosion, the resulting mushroom cloud was at an altitude of fifteen kilometers. The mushroom grew to its maximum size in eight minutes - it is twenty kilometers in diameter.

In the state of Nevada in America, an underground explosion was carried out in 1962 in the desert. The charge was laid to a depth of four hundred and fifty meters. The power turned out to be such that visually on the shooting of the explosion you can see how ripples went through the desert.

Nuclear weapons were also tested on a barge. The name of one of them is "Castle Romeo". And again, the power exceeded the calculated one by almost three times and turned out to be equal to eleven megatons. This test was the first, but no further stages followed, since the entire set of tests would simply destroy all the islands on which they were carried out.

In 1952, Mike was tested on the island of Elugelab. The exploded device was called "sausage" and turned out to be more powerful than all the bombs dropped during the years of the Second World War. This is the first megaton-class bomb. The mushroom rose to a height of forty-one kilometers with a diameter of ninety-six kilometers.

It is impossible not to recall the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It is known that a bomb with the name "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki, resulting in the death of sixty to eighty thousand people and severe destruction. The atomic bomb "Baby" exploded in Hiroshima, killing approximately one hundred and sixty-six thousand people. Both of these bombings were the first use of such a powerful weapon as a combat weapon.

The explosion of the "Tsar bomb"

At the end of October 1961, the most powerful bomb in history exploded. The country that implemented it is the USSR. She was given a sonorous name - "Tsar Bomba". Its second name is "Kuzkin's mother". 58 megaton hydrogen bomb exploded on the island New Earth. According to Nikita Khrushchev, it was originally planned to create a hundred megaton bomb, but for the test they decided to reduce the charge. As he joked, so that the windows of houses in Moscow would not break.

As a result of such a powerful explosion, all living things within a radius of sixty-two kilometers were struck. The power is such that such an explosion could easily destroy a city with a million inhabitants.

Man-made non-nuclear explosions

In addition to atomic explosions, many non-atomic explosions have been produced in the history of mankind. Their number is huge. So, in the First World War, one of these explosions occurred during the Battle of Messina in 1917. british army blew up the tunnels, laying nineteen large mines, thus demoralizing the enemy. As a result, about ten thousand Germans died. In 1913, the Welsh cargo Ship who was carrying dynamite needed to build the Panama Canal. The mass of dynamite was three hundred and forty-three tons.

Another non-atomic explosion is an explosion chemical plant in the city of Oppau in the autumn of 1921, which led to significant destruction and mass casualties. Just great amount explosions were made during the Second World War. Battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers, steamships, artillery cellars exploded.

Already in Peaceful time Explosions continued around the world. Trainloads of explosives were blown up, explosions were made as a simulation atomic explosion, there were catastrophes at spaceports, explosions at military bases, etc.

In the twenty-first century, several large non-nuclear explosions are also known. So, in 2009, during the construction of the Kambarata HPP-2 dam in Kyrgyzstan, a powerful industrial explosion was carried out. In the autumn of 2001, an explosion occurred at the AZF factory in Toulouse, which led to man-made disaster. The list could go on.

Big bang in the universe

Many people have heard about the big bang, which resulted in the formation of the universe. However, this has not been reliably confirmed. However, astronomical observations confirm this version. The big bang in the universe occurred about 13 billion years ago

For what reasons the explosion occurred is not clear. This object, endowed with properties incomprehensible to us, began to expand with great speed. This is how our universe was born. With expansion, the density decreased, the temperature dropped, and the physical properties changed.

It is assumed that it was as a result of the big bang that small and major planets. .
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Incredible Facts

Explosions, both natural and man-made, have terrified every human being for centuries. Below are the 10 most powerful explosions in history.

Texas disaster

A fire that broke out aboard the SS Grandcamp freighter docked in Texas in 1947 caused an explosion of 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate (a compound used in explosives Oh). A shock wave in the sky blew up two flying aircraft, and then chain reaction destroyed factories nearby, as well as a nearby ship carrying another 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. Overall, the explosion is considered the worst industrial accident in the US, killing 600 people and leaving 3,500 injured.

Halifax explosion

In 1917, a French ship, fully loaded with weapons and explosives intended for use during the First World War, accidentally collided with a Belgian ship in the port of Halifax (Canada).

The explosion occurred of enormous force - 3 kilotons of TNT. As a result of the explosion, the city was enveloped in an immense cloud, which spread to 6100 meters in height, and it also provoked a tsunami up to 18 meters high. Within a radius of 2 km from the center of the explosion, everything was destroyed, about 2,000 people died, more than 9,000 were injured. This explosion remains the world's largest man-made accidental explosion.

Accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant

In 1986, one of the nuclear reactors nuclear power plant. It was the worst nuclear disaster in history. The explosion, which instantly took off the 2,000-ton reactor cover, left behind 400 times more radioactive fallout than the Hiroshima bombs, thus polluting more than 200,000 square kilometers of European land. More than 600,000 people were exposed to high doses of radiation, and more than 350,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas.

Explosion at Trinity

The first atomic bomb in history was tested in 1945 at Trinity Site, New Mexico. The explosion occurred with a force equal to approximately 20 kilotons of TNT. Scientist Robert Oppenheimer (Robert Oppenheimer) later said that when he watched the test of the atomic bomb, his thoughts focused on one phrase from an ancient Hindu scripture: "I become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Later, World War II ended, but the fear of nuclear annihilation remained for many decades. Recently, scientists discovered that citizens of New Mexico, who lived in the state at the time, were exposed to radiation doses that were thousands of times higher than the maximum allowable level.

Tunguska

A mysterious explosion that occurred in 1908, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, located in the Siberian forests, affected an area of ​​2000 square kilometers (an area slightly smaller than the area of ​​the city of Tokyo). Scientists believe that the explosion was caused by the cosmic influence of an asteroid or comet (whose diameter was perhaps 20 meters and a mass of 185 thousand tons, which is 7 times more than the mass of the Titanic). There was a huge explosion - four megatons of TNT, it was 250 times more powerful than the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Mount Tambora

In 1815, the largest volcanic eruption in human history occurred. In Indonesia, Mount Tambora exploded with a force of about 1,000 megatons of TNT. As a result of the explosion, about 140 billion tons of magma were thrown out, 71,000 people were killed, and these were not only residents of the island of Sumbawa, but also the neighboring island of Lombok. The ash that was everywhere after the eruption even provoked the development of anomalies in global climatic conditions.

The following year, 1816, became known as the year without a summer, with snow falling in June and hundreds of thousands of people starving to death all over the world.

Impact of dinosaur extinction

The Age of Dinosaurs ended approximately 65 million years ago with a cataclysm that wiped out almost half of all existing species on the planet.

Studies show that the planet was already on the verge ecological crisis before the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, last straw in what made the dinosaurs stay far in the past was cosmic influence an asteroid or comet, 10 km wide, which exploded with a force of 10,000 gigatonnes of TNT (which is 1,000 times the force of the world's nuclear arsenal).

The explosion covered the whole world with dust, every now and then in different places on the planet fires flared up and formed powerful tsunami. On the coast Gulf of Mexico appeared in Chicxulub huge crater, 180 km wide, which was probably the result of an explosion.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

This comet spectacularly collided with Jupiter in 1994. The giant gravity of the planet tore the comet into fragments, each of which was approximately 3 km wide. They were moving at a speed of 60 km per second towards the earth, as a result of which 21 visible consequences were recorded. It was a violent collision that created a fireball that rose more than 3000 km above the clouds of Jupiter.

Also, this explosion provoked the appearance of a giant dark spot, stretching for 12,000 km (almost the diameter of the Earth). The explosion was a force of 6,000 gigatonnes of TNT.

Shadow Supernova

Supernovae are exploding stars that often outshine entire galaxies with their brightness for a short period of time. The brightest supernova explosion in history was recorded in the spring of 1006 in the constellation of the Wolf (lat. Lupus). Known today as SN 1006, the explosion took place about 7,100 light-years ago in the nearest part of the galaxy and was bright enough to remain visible during daylight hours for several months.

Explosion of gamma rays

Explosions and bursts of gamma rays are the most powerful explosions known in the universe. The light from the explosion of the most distant gamma rays (GRB 090423) is clearly visible on our planet today, being at a distance of 13 billion light years from it. As a result of this explosion, which lasted just over a second, 100 times more energy than our Sun will produce in 10 billion years of life.

It is likely that this explosion occurred as a result of the collapse of a dying star, which is 30-100 times the size of the Sun.

big universal bang

Theorists claim that the appearance of our universe is the result of big bang. Although this is often perceived as such (perhaps because of the name), but in fact there was no explosion. At the very beginning of its existence, our universe was very heat and it was extremely dense. A common misconception is that the universe allegedly exploded from a single, central point in space. The reality, it seems, is not so simple - instead of an explosion, space, apparently, began to stretch, "pulling" several galaxies along with it.

The invention of gunpowder forever changed the nature of warfare. Already in the Middle Ages, gunpowder was widely used not only in artillery, but also to undermine the fortress walls, under which tunnels were made. At the same time, the defenders did not sit idly by, they could also blow up these tunnels or dug counter galleries. Sometimes real battles unfolded underground. These underground battles became much later an element of the First World War, when the opposing countries were bogged down in trench warfare and trench seat and returned to the tactics of digging tunnels and laying underground mines of monstrous power under the enemy fortifications.

At the same time, during the First World War, there were two explosions of enormous force, one of which was produced during the Battle of Messina in June 1917, and the second occurred already in December 1917, far from the front line in Canadian Halifax, almost completely destroying this city. The explosion in Halifax is one of the strongest man-made non-nuclear explosions that have been arranged by mankind, and long time was considered the most powerful explosion of the non-nuclear era.

Messinian battle

The Battle of Messina, or the Messina operation, lasted from June 7 to 14, 1917 and ended successfully for the British army, which managed to push the German troops, improving their positions. The battle took place in Flanders near a village called Mesen, during which the British troops tried to cut off a 15-kilometer ledge German troops. The British, who realized that they could not break through the German defenses with conventional attacks, began preparations for the operation as early as 1915, 15 months before it began. During this time period, they managed to lay more than 20 giant tunnels under the second level. ground water in a layer of blue clay. Data engineering work preceded by serious geodetic work and study of the soil in this sector of the front.

The British mined all dug tunnels, and the excavated soil was carefully masked so that the Germans could not notice it, especially when aerial reconnaissance. The English underground galleries began about 400 meters behind their lines of defense. As German positions in this sector of the front they walked along the heights, then the tunnels passed under the defense of the German troops at a depth that reached 25-36 meters, and in some places even up to 50 meters. Total length of these underground communications was more than 7300 meters, while at the end of the tunnels the British laid about 600 tons of explosives, they used ammonite. Still, the Germans managed to unravel the plan of the British strategists, but they mistakenly believed that the tunnels were located at a depth of up to 18 meters, so they managed to destroy only two mine galleries, another 22 remained intact.

Offensive British troops on this sector of the front was preceded by a powerful artillery preparation, which began on May 28. And on June 7, with an interval of about 30 seconds, 19 mine galleries were detonated. As a result of these explosions, the first and second line of German trenches were destroyed, and gigantic craters appeared on the site of the fortifications. The largest of the funnels is considered to be the “crater of a lone tree”, the diameter of which was up to 80 meters, and the depth reached 27 meters. As a result of these underground explosions about 10 thousand died German soldiers, another 7200 soldiers and 145 officers German army were taken prisoner, being demoralized and unable to offer serious resistance. Craters from those terrible explosions survived to this day, many of them have become artificial reservoirs.

Tragedy in Halifax, Canada

In fact, an explosion near locality Messin was not isolated, it was a series of explosions that led to the collapse of the front line of defense German troops. And if in this case such explosions could be justified military necessity, in December of that year, the largest explosion of the pre-nuclear era rocked the peaceful port city of Halifax. The Mont Blanc transport ship that exploded off the coast was filled to capacity with explosives. On board were about 2300 tons of dry and liquid picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 10 tons of pyroxylin and 35 tons of benzene in barrels.

Built in 1899, the Mont Blanc auxiliary transport could carry up to 3,121 tons of cargo. The ship was built in England but owned by a French shipping firm. Explosives were loaded on board the ship on November 25, 1917 in the port of New York, the ship's destination was France - the port of Bordeaux. waypoint was on the transport route Canadian Halifax, where the formation of convoys sent across the Atlantic took place.

"Mont Blanc" appeared on the outer roads of Halifax on the evening of December 5, 1917. The next morning, at about 7 am, the ship began to enter the port. At the same time, the steamship Imo, owned by Norway, was leaving the port. When the ships approached, both captains began to make risky maneuvers, which eventually led to the Imo ramming the Mont Blanc to starboard. As a result of the impact, several barrels containing benzene shattered, and their contents spilled over the transport. The captain of the Imo steamer reversed and managed to free his ship and leave safely. At the same time, when the two ships were uncoupled, as a result of metal-to-metal friction, a sheaf of sparks arose, which ignited the benzene that spread over the Mont Blanc.

Knowing the nature of the cargo on the ship, the captain of the Mont Blanc, Le Medec, ordered the crew to leave the ship. It didn’t take long to persuade the sailors, all the crew members safely reached the shore, leaving the deadly cargo to themselves. As a result, the burning transport began to drift towards the coast, eventually falling on a wooden pier in Richmond, one of the districts of Halifax. Only a few people knew about the nature of the cargo aboard the Mont Blanc in this Canadian city. For this reason, almost the entire population of a small town clung to the windows in the hope of getting a better view of the rare sight that was a burning ship. On both sides of the strait, around which the city was spread, onlookers began to gather.

A monstrous explosion at 9:06 in the morning put an end to this "performance". The strength of the explosion is evidenced by the fact that a 100-kilogram piece of the ship's frame was later found in the forest at a distance of 19 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, and the cruiser "Niob" with a displacement of 11 thousand tons and the steamer "Kuraka" standing in the harbor were thrown ashore like chips . In the city of Truro, which was located 30 miles from Halifax, windows were shattered by the shock wave. In the district within a radius of 60 miles in all churches from the blast wave, bells spontaneously rang.

According to official statistics, as a result of the explosion in Halifax, 1963 people died, about 2000 people went missing. Many of the wounded froze to death in the wreckage as the next day the temperature plummeted and a severe snowstorm began. Someone just burned alive, as fires broke out throughout the city, which blazed for several days. In three schools in the city, out of 500 students, only 11 survived. About 9 thousand people were injured, including 500 lost their sight, having suffered from scattered glass fragments. At the same time, the northern part of the city, the Richmond area, was almost completely wiped off the face of the earth as a result of this explosion. In total, 1,600 buildings were completely destroyed in Halifax, another 12,000 were badly damaged, and at least 25,000 people lost their homes.

Explosion on the island of Helgoland

Second World War gave the world a series of new powerful non-nuclear explosions. Most of them related to the death of battleships and aircraft carriers of the warring parties. The explosion of the Japanese battleship Yamato on April 7, 1945, when the main caliber cellar detonated, the explosion was equivalent to 500 tons of TNT, put an end to the series of these maritime tragedies. There were also tragedies like the one that happened in Halifax. July 17, 1944 in the USA port city Port Chicago exploded while loading ammunition on board a transport. The mushroom cloud rose to a height of about three kilometers, the explosion power was about 2 kt of TNT, which was comparable to the port explosion in Halifax on December 6, 1917, the power of which was estimated at 3 kt.

However, even these explosions paled before the one that was created by human hands on the German island of Helgoland in the North Sea. This explosion was a real echo of the war, it forever changed the face of the island, but did not take away a single human life as it was planned. After the defeat of Germany in World War II, the entire population of the island was evacuated, and the British decided to destroy all the fortifications of the Third Reich submarine base that remained here, and also to conduct seismic surveys.

Along the way, they solved the problem with disposal a large number ammunition that they had left after the end of the war. The explosion took place on April 18, 1947. By this time, 4,000 torpedo warheads, 9,000 deep-sea bombs and 91,000 grenades of various calibers had been brought to the island, total 6700 tons of various explosives. The explosion of these munitions, which were prepared for several weeks, formed a mushroom cloud that rose into the sky to a height of 1800 meters. The explosion was so powerful that it was even registered in Sicily. The explosion on the island of Heligoland was registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the most powerful non-nuclear explosion in. The detonation of the explosion released energy that was comparable to 1/3 of the power of the atomic bomb that the Americans dropped on Hiroshima.

The British planned that the island would be completely destroyed as a result of the explosion, but it survived. But its form has been changed forever. All southern part Helgoland island turned into a crater huge size, which is still an attractive place for tourists today. After the explosion, the British used the island as a training ground for bombing exercises for several more years, returning it to Germany in the 1950s. Practical Germans were able to rebuild the island in a few years, opening for it new stage cultural and tourist life.

Sailor Hat Tests

The largest non-nuclear explosions in history include a series of tests as part of the US Navy operation under code name"Sailor Hat" (literally sailor's hat). This is a series of tests that were carried out in 1965 on the island of Kahoolawe (Hawaii). The purpose of the tests was to determine the effect shock wave high power explosions warships and the equipment installed on them. As part of the operation, research was also carried out in the field of underwater acoustics, seismology, meteorology, and radio wave propagation.

Each of the tests involved the explosion of large (500 tons) explosive charges. At the same time, the explosives were stacked quite interestingly - in a hemispherical stack, which consisted of 3 million 150-gram TNT blocks. Explosions were made in the immediate vicinity of ships standing nearby. At the same time, with each new test, they got closer and closer to the place of the explosion. In total, three explosions were carried out: February 6, 1965 "Bravo", April 16, 1965 "Charlie" and June 19, 1965 "Delta". These explosions are well characterized by the phrase - money down the drain. In 1965 prices, 500 tons of explosives cost 1 million US dollars.

The impact of the conducted explosions on internal equipment ships were recorded on special high-speed cameras. The tests carried out showed that the force of the explosions was enough to destroy the steel fasteners and throw off rather heavy radar equipment from their pedestals. But, despite the severity of the damage, the warships remained afloat. In addition, two observation airships were destroyed by the blast during the tests.

Based on materials from open sources

There is no artificial explosion in the world more powerful than the explosion of an atomic bomb. And although many countries tested nuclear weapons in the world, only the USA and the USSR exploded bombs with a capacity of more than 10 megatons of TNT.

In order to visually see the destruction and casualties that such bombs can cause, you should use the service Nukemap. The inner ring is the epicenter, in which everything will burn in fire. In the pink circle, almost all buildings will be destroyed, and the percentage of the number of victims will be almost 100%. In the green circle, mortality will be between 50 and 90%, most of the dead will die from the radiation received over the next few weeks. In the gray circle, the most durable buildings will stand, but the wounds in their mass will be fatal. In orange, people with exposed skin will receive third-degree burns and combustible materials will ignite, leading to massive fires.

And here are the 12 most powerful explosions in human history:

Foto: Publicitates atteli

On August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month apart, 10 megaton atomic bombs were tested on Novaya Zemlya. The area of ​​the epicenter of the explosion, in which all living and non-living things would be destroyed, amounted to 4.5 square meters. kilometers. Third-degree burns would have awaited everyone within a radius of almost three kilometers. Photos and videos of test materials, at least, have not been preserved in public access.

10. Evie Mike

On November 1, 1952, the United States tested the world's first thermonuclear explosive device with a capacity of 10.4-12 megatons of TNT equivalent - almost 700 times more than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The power of the explosion was sufficient to completely destroy the Elugelab atoll, on the site of which a crater with a diameter of 2 kilometers and a depth of 50 meters was formed. Heavily infected fragments of coral reefs scattered over a distance of 50 kilometers. The explosion was captured on video.

9 Castle Romeo

Foto: Wikipedia

In 1954, the United States launched a whole series of tests of thermonuclear bombs of a fundamentally different design than the Evie Mike (more practical, although still inapplicable as a weapon). The Romeo had a capacity of 11 megatons and was the first bomb to be detonated on a barge in open ocean- later this will become the standard for American nuclear tests, since bombs of such power, as it turned out with the rest of the charges of the Castle test series, simply wipe out small islands on which nuclear charges were originally tested.

Foto: Publicitates atteli

On October 23, 1961, the USSR experienced another nuclear bomb, this time with a capacity of 12.5 megatons of TNT. On an area of ​​5 sq. kilometers, it destroyed everything in general, and within a radius of three kilometers it burned out everything that could burn.

7 Castle Yankees

Foto: Kadrs no video

In 1954, the US consistently tested "locks". Another was blown up on May 4 - with a capacity of 13.5 megatons and infected clouds reached Mexico City, which was more than 11 thousand kilometers away, in just four days.

6 Castle Bravo

Foto: Wikipedia

The most powerful of the "castles" - it is also the most powerful American nuclear weapon - was blown up on February 28, 1954 on Bikini Atoll, before other "castles". It was assumed that its capacity would be only 6 megatons, but in fact, due to an error in the calculations, it reached 15 Mt, exceeding the calculated one by 2.5 times. As a result of the explosion, the Japanese fishing vessel "Fukuryu-Maru" was covered with radioactive ash, which led to serious illness and disability of the crew members (one person died soon after). This "fisherman" incident, and the exposure of several hundred residents of the Marshall Islands who were blown away on the day of the tests, led to major protests around the world and led politicians and scientists to talk about the need to limit nuclear weapons testing. .

Foto: Publicitates atteli

From August 5 to September 27, 1962, a whole series of tests of nuclear charges with a capacity of 20 megatons of TNT each - 1000 times more powerful than a bomb thrown on Nagasaki.

Foto: Publicitates atteli

A series of Soviet tests in 1962 culminated in the detonation of a 24.2 megaton TNT equivalent charge, the second most powerful explosion. It was produced at a test site on the same Novaya Zemlya.