Big-baadaa-boom!
This image, from the October 2002 issue of Popular Mechanics, compares the nuclear weapons from WWII-era to those in existence -- and the tiny, low yield, Bunker Busters of the US. What is incredible isn't the latest nuclear arsenal -- but that of the past -- and how terrifyingly close we came ending it all.
The Popular Mechanics graphic tops out with the Tsar Bomba (aka Ivan), the 50-megaton nuclear bomb that was detonated by the Russians on October 30, 1961 in the Arctic Sea -- its yield was equivalent to 10-times all the explosives used in WWII; followed by Bravo, a 15-megaton bomb tested by the US on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll -- its yield was equivalent to 1,000 times that of Fat Man and Little Boy; then, Mike, which was tested on October 31, 1952 by the US. On the graphic, Fat Man and Little Boy hardly register as a blip.
How close we came during the cold war ... how close.
The Popular Mechanics graphic tops out with the Tsar Bomba (aka Ivan), the 50-megaton nuclear bomb that was detonated by the Russians on October 30, 1961 in the Arctic Sea -- its yield was equivalent to 10-times all the explosives used in WWII; followed by Bravo, a 15-megaton bomb tested by the US on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll -- its yield was equivalent to 1,000 times that of Fat Man and Little Boy; then, Mike, which was tested on October 31, 1952 by the US. On the graphic, Fat Man and Little Boy hardly register as a blip.
How close we came during the cold war ... how close.
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