Since the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, more than 2,051 nuclear weapons tests have been conducted worldwide. No other power personifies the absolute destructive power that humanity has unlocked as nuclear weapons do. And the truth is, the guns quickly became more powerful in the decades after the initial test.

The US Trinity test, the device tested that year was rated at 20 kilotons, meaning it had an explosive strength of 20,000 tons of TNT. that explosion vaporized the tower instantly He stood on it and turned the surrounding sand into green glass before sending a powerful heat wave across the desert. By comparison, estimates for the Hiroshima bomb are around 15 kilotons of force.

In 20 years and as the Cold War intensified, the US and USSR tested more than 10 megatons of nuclear weapons, or 10 million tons of TNT. On scale, these weapons are at least 500 times more powerful than the first atomic bomb. The US and Russia now each have thousands of nuclear weapons. But it’s not just them: China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel also have nuclear weapons. The continued Russian occupation of Ukraine has raised fears that such nuclear weapons may eventually be used.

A chart by The Visual Capitalist visually compares the 10 largest nuclear explosions in history. Documents from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Russian Federation’s Department of Defense revealed multiple powerful explosions. Still, there are a number of nuclear weapon explosions whose yields are uncertain, so only those whose strength is known are included. All these explosions are much more powerful than those used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.

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What happens in the explosion?

After detonating, nuclear bombs create giant fireballs. a blinding flash and a burning heat wave. The fireball swallows the surrounding air and grows larger as it rises, like a hot air balloon. As the fireball and warm air rise, it is flattened by the cooler, denser air higher in the atmosphere, forming the mushroom “hood” structure. At the base of the cloud, the fireball sends out a shock wave that travels outward at thousands of kilometers per hour, causing physical destruction.

A strong force of air and dirt particles passing through the center of the cloud form the “body” of the mushroom cloud. In most atomic explosions, changing atmospheric pressure and water condensation form rings that surround the cloud, also known as Wilson clouds. Over time, the mushroom cloud dissipates. Again, leaves a radioactive fallout in the form of nuclear particles, debris, dust and ash that cause permanent damage to the local environment. Because the particles are light, they are often dispersed by the wind beyond the blast zone.

This Nukemmap by Alex Wellerstein helps us visualize the terrifying real impact of a nuclear explosion to scale the size of the largest nuclear explosions in history. On the map, the first ring of the explosion is the fireball, and then the radiation radius. Nearly all the buildings in the pink radius were destroyed and deaths approaching 100%. In the gray radius, the strongest buildings can withstand the explosion, but injuries are almost universal. In the orange radius, persons with exposed skin will suffer third-degree burns and combustible materials will ignite.

The most powerful explosions in history

Ivy Mike (1952). In 1952, the United States detonated the Mike device, the first hydrogen bomb, as part of Operation Ivy. Hydrogen bombs rely on nuclear fusion to power their explosion and produce much more explosive energy than atomic bombs that use nuclear fission. Weighing 63,500 kg, Ivy Mike produced a yield of 10,400 kilotons, equivalent to the explosive power of 10.4 million tons of TNT. The explosion was 700 times more powerful than Little Boy, the bomb fell on Hiroshima in 1945.

Romeo Castle (1954). It was part of the Operation Fortress series of US nuclear tests that took place in the Marshall Islands. Surprisingly, the US was running out of islands to test, making Romeo the first test ever to be conducted on a barge in the ocean. At 11,000 kilotons, the test produced more than double the planned 4,000 kiloton burst energy.

Soviet Test #123 (1961). Test #123 was one of 57 tests conducted by the Soviet Union in 1961. Most of these tests were conducted on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in northwestern Russia. The bomb produced 12,500 kilotonnes of explosive energy, enough to vaporize anything within a 3.5 km radius.

Yankee Castle (1954). This was the fifth test in the Fortress Campaign. The explosion was the second most powerful US nuclear test. It produced 13,500 kilotons, much more than the expected yield of up to 10,000 kilotons. Four days after the explosion, its results reached Mexico City, some 11,400 kilometers away.

Castle Bravo (1954). The first in the Operation Fortress series accidentally became the most powerful nuclear bomb ever tested by the United States. Due to a design flaw, the explosive energy of the bomb reached 15,000 kilotons, two and a half times what was expected. The mushroom cloud rose to a height of about 40 km.

A huge area was contaminated as a result of the test, and residents of nearby atolls were exposed to high levels of radioactive fallout. Traces of the explosion have been found in Australia, India, Japan and Europe.

Soviet tests #173, #174, #147 (1962). In 1962, the Soviet Union conducted 78 nuclear tests, three of which produced the fifth, fourth and third most powerful explosions in history. Tests 173, 174 and 147 each returned about 20,000 kilotons.

Soviet test #219 (1962). Test #219 was an atmospheric nuclear test with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in which the bomb exploded at an altitude of 3.8 km above sea level. It was the second most powerful nuclear explosion with a yield of 24,200 kilotons and a devastating radius of 41 km.

The Tsar Bomb (1961). Tsar Bomba, also called Ivan the Great, needed a specially designed aircraft as it was too heavy to be transported in a conventional aircraft. The bomb was attached to a giant parachute to give the plane time to fly.

The explosion, which produced 50,000 kilotons of power, razed an abandoned village 55 kilometers away and triggered a magnitude 5 earthquake in the surrounding area. It was originally designed as a 100,000 kiloton bomb, but the Soviet Union reduced its production to half its potential. Tsar Bomba’s mushroom cloud broke through the stratosphere, reaching an altitude of more than 60 km, nearly six times the flight altitude of a commercial airplane.