8 Amazing Technicolor Images of Nuclear Fireballs
Thu, Apr 3, 2008
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Continuing our nuclear theme this week, I thought it might be interesting to showcase some of the most amazing images of destruction that man and nature have ever devised.
“Licorne” test in French Polynesia 1970, (France)
Destruction can often be eerily beautiful. It can also remind us of how fragile our existence is and how we mustn’t take it for granted. Below, in no particular order are some of the most incredible pictures of nuclear explosions.
Operation Tumbler Snapper US 1952
Operation Upshot/Knothole US 1953
Operation Upshot/Knothole US 1953
Operation Ivy US 1952
Operation Buster-Jangle 1951 (US)
Operation Greenhouse 1951 (US)
Operation Redwing 1956 (US)
You can also watch a video here of the detonation of 914-kiloton TN-60 thermonuclear warhead (France, “Licorne” test) at Mururoa Atoll, French Polynesia on July 3, 1970. This corresponds to the first photo. Via Vroom101 on Digg.
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3 Trackbacks For This Post
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Nuclear Colors « kalydoscope Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 7:39 pm[...] fireballs [...]
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Explosiones nucleares « Ciencia y tecnología en español al alcance de todos Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 11:20 pm[...] Link: environmentalgraffiti.com [...]
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Owl Pellets « The Grumpy Owl Says:
April 8th, 2008 at 6:07 pm[...] 8 Amazing Technicolor Images of Nuclear Fireballs: Mushroom clouds are beautiful. Sure, they burn you up but they also clear the planet of people who have that ruthless gene and beat swans to death. [...]
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
That first image is especially beautiful – in a scary-as-hell kinda way.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:59 pm
That first one seems to have been a French nuke test in the Pacific in 1968. So I’ve read.
April 4th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Einstein once said that if he had known what people would do with his equation E=mc squared, he would have kept it to himself……. Maybe he should have.
April 4th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Operation Greenhouse? Irony at its finest.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
These are COLOR pictures. They are amazing, awe inspiring, terrifying. They are NOT “Technicolor”. They are simply “color” pictures. Using “Technicolor” as an adjective is hype (hyperbole) which, in the end, diminishes the quality of the point being made. Do not over state or make “more important” by using pseudo-technical gibberish. It is lazy and dishonest. Are you what you say?
Nelson
PS – The last time I understood “Technicolor” it was a brand of image coloring used for motion pictures in the 1950/60s.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Kinda surprised you didn’t include any photos taken showing a test cloud in the background with the Las Vegas strip in the foreground… Few folks realize the proximity of Vegas to the Nevada test sites…
April 4th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Yeah, I can read captions too
April 4th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
What, no Castle/Bravo shot! Give me a break man! And we need Tsar Bomba fireball here as well.
Bravo was 15MT, US’s largest test, and Tsar Bomba was 50MT, the largest test ever!
Castle Bravo, Bikini Atoll:
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/BravoC1024c10.jpg
This 15MT blast shot was taken from 50 miles away.
Big Ivan, Tsar Bomba, Nova Zemlya :
http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/03/tsarbombamushroomcloud.jpg
(So big the shockwaves set off seismographs three times (one initial, two reverberations) on the entire planet. Cloud height 120,000 ft+.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Thanks for sharing these.
I hope I will never see a scene like this in real life.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Great photographs. Thanks for putting these up.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Did you read that in the caption under the picture?
April 4th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
nelson: take a pill
April 4th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
shutterbugag47, Einstein was notorious for trying to claim credit for the Atomic bomb, but the fact is that E=mc2 is NOT, as some people seem to think, the “recipe” for Nuclear Fission. It’s just the formula for computing energy based on mass and speed. The Nuke would have been created regardless of Einstein’s work.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
-Amazing- pictures. :O
April 4th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Einsteins work laid the foundation for all of nuclear physics. You are right the E=mc2 is not the ‘recipe’ for nuclear weapons. That would be the critical mass. It is however a revelation that had to take place, through Einstein or otherwise, before we unlocked the secrets of the nucleus that led us to Nuclear Weapons.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Better still Nelson …….take a few
April 5th, 2008 at 1:03 am
The idea for the use of a nuclear chain reaction as fuel for an “atomic” bomb (actually first credited to HG Wells in ‘The World Set Free’) is usually credited to Leo Szilard.
Szilard is the one who convinced Einstein to sign a letter urging President Roosevelt to get the US started on an nuclear bomb because Hilter was already working on one…
Oppenheimer got it built
April 5th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Maven:
No. It’s for calculating the equivalent energy stored in the form of mass. The speed has nothing to do with it — you’re multipyling by a CONSTANT which is the speed of light in a vacuum. The speed at which the object is going does not change the fundamental constant c.
The difference of it for the nucleus and the energy from the neutrons+protons in the nucleus shows how much energy is in binding force. The difference of that for the atoms on the left side of the equation and that on the right side is the amount let out a nuclear reaction.
The physics showed gigantic numbers, and thus scientists set out to harvest that energy once they saw how potentially devastating the amount of energy inside the atoms was.
(Also, Einstein suggested for the US to develop an atomic bomb (no one knew the Germans gave up at their own attempt))
Please stop giving those who know science a bad name by parading as one and using false information.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:28 am
Correct. Einstein had nothing to do with the atomic bomb.The bomb is based on explosive potential of nuclear chemistry. that’s like saying we would have never had explosives if we didn’t have E=mc2. The observation that atoms split and release energy was a laboratory observation. No theory involved at that point. Then Fermi created the first nuclear reactor to prove that the rate of fission could be controlled by the rate of neutron absorbtion. Maximize neutron density, you create a chain reaction. Again experimental observation. They tried to apply theory to figure out how much fissonable material they would need for a bomb. They didn’t really get that right and overestimated it.
April 5th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
One simply cannot comprehend the power of nuclear reactions.
These photos are wonderful.
Could anyone imagine the power of matter/antimatter at anihilation by E=mc2?
p.s.
I believe, the nuclear power is far to powerful for human to possess it at its current level of civilization/mentality. It is a real miracle, that we still haven’t exterminated each other, though.
April 5th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
RE: Nelson
Please think a bit more about your comment. All of these images (save the 1st and last i believe) all are stills from film recordings of the blasts.
It is know that the AEC and DOE used ‘Hollywood’ film setups to record all blasts (see: ) Unfortunately it hard to find a definitive listing of the color film systems (not the film formats, those are VistaVision and CinemaScope). Given the fact that several of the recordings are from the early 1950’s it is highly likely that they are in fact Technicolor. QED
-FC
April 10th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
the stuff i have read is that einstein was kinda the public face – but most of the work and organization was done by szilard and oppenheimer (sp).
some of einstein’s work was involved – but it could have and would have been done without his work.
all i can say is that maybe the 1960’s movie – Planet of the Apes, might not have been too far off.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Thanks for the link to my video! I have dozens of other nuke shot videos at my youtube site. Including this amazing clip!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-5u1Ig8Vlc
Jeromey
May 25th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Boom… I hope there is never a nuclear war because those ones were devastating and that was decades ago!
July 15th, 2008 at 3:54 am
The photos themselves do not give credit to the actual size and devesatation brought on by these explosions. This site below will give you more of an idea just how powerful they really are http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html
mind you that typical yields of our stockpiles are around 350kt.
Also most of these weapons could easily fit into a small studio apartment. the amount of energy released is just mind bogling SP?
December 18th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
As David Icke has remarked, “This world is run by incredibly sick people.”
March 25th, 2009 at 1:58 am
well if u r all expert, make ur own blog and website!!! : X
April 1st, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I guess that is what the atomic dick is (I can’t be the only one who sees this)…and it has the same impact on Mother Earth (as it f’s things up).
PS I love how you guys (I’m assuming gender here) are arguing how it all happens, when what we should be doing is finding a way to use our knowledge and abilities for the common good.
you might also appreciate knowing: my husband is a nuc engineer
June 30th, 2009 at 9:46 am
HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:46 pm
The race of people who invented the end to all humans on the planet. May God never ever forgive them.