The advent of science and technology in the field of warfare and war machineryreached new heights in World War II while the Cold War took it to a whole new level when USA and USSR locked horns in an arms’ race.
Let’s have a look at how they went on to create some of the biggest nuclear tests ever done.
1. Tsar Bomba
The biggest and deadliest bomb ever tested in human history, Tsar Bomba was a colossal beast unleashed by Russia, then USSR, on October 30, 1961 in the province of Novaya Zemlya. A bomb of 50 megatons, Tsar was made to annihilate. Originally touted to be twice as powerful, its capacity was later surprisingly reduced! Detonated in mid-air at a height of 4 kilometres, it still produced a fireball big enough to touch the ground 4 kilometres below and stretch another 10 kilometres up in the air! The cloud formed by Tsar was 64 kilometres high and 40 kilometres wide. Nothing has come closer to this artificial explosion and let’s hope nothing will!
2. TU-95
USSR were at the top of the game during the Cold War, churning out one mind-numbing atomic bomb after another. They were also capable of holding the upper hand when it came to nuclear assault. The second biggest test ever recorded was by USSR’s TU-95 on December 24, 1962. A bomb with a yield of 24.2 megatons, the TU-95 was tested in USSR’s playground, Novaya Zemlya. Just like the Tsar Bomba, TU-95 had its yield reduced from 50 megatons to 24 megatons!
3. Operation Castle-Bravo
USA wasn’t to left behind in this arms race. USA was equipped with the 15 megaton Bravo which was detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll. Bravo was the biggest nuclear device ever dropped by the USA. Unfortunately Bravo had adverse effects on a large number of people. The radiation from Bravo spread over 7000 square miles of Pacific and endangered the lives of thousands of people residing around the detonation area. The ill-effects of the blast are such that they’re still seen today amongst the locals.
4. Operation Castle-Yankee
Yet another explosion by the USA at Bikini Atoll, Yankee was a comparatively smaller one. Expected to yield 6 to 10 megatons of explosion, Yankee ended up churning out 13.5 megatons of a mammoth mushroom cloud. This high peak in yield came from the rapid fission of uranium tamper that occurred in the bomb. Yankee’s mushroom cloud was seen growing to a height of 40,000 feet or 12 kilometres!
5. Operation Castle-Romeo
Bikini Atoll was USA’s Novaya Zemlya. A nuclear testing site fit for total annihilation, Bikini Atoll definitely took a healthy beating repeatedly. And with Romeo, the beating proved to be a bomb yielding 11 megatons. Detonated on March 27, 1954, the mushroom cloud, or rather the massive tree of cloud that sprung out of this explosion, painted a grotesque imagery of warfare and its deadly effects.
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