The day of October 30, 1961, unlike April 12, was not included in the political calendars of the USSR as a day of national pride for the Soviet people, although there was something to be proud of. About that record - sinister, of course, but largely forced - Soviet people never found out, just as not everyone knows about him today.
It's about about an event in the history of domestic scientific and technological progress, which had a sharp impact on the course of the Cold War between the two nuclear powers. On that day, a second sun lit up in a clear sky above Novaya Zemlya. It burned for 70 seconds, illuminating the huge snow-covered archipelago with a piercing, blinding light. It was the most powerful thermonuclear air explosion in the world - over 50 megatons of TNT.
Work on the creation of the AN602 thermonuclear bomb began in the early 1950s under the leadership of academicians Kurchatov and Khariton (by the way, academician and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, often called the "father of the Russian hydrogen bomb" by Western propaganda, was only one of the team members). The first test of the Soviet thermo nuclear weapons took place on August 12, 1953 - Stalin did not live to see this for only six months. The new nuclear device, according to the tradition accepted in the Union, received the code name "Vanya", and more officially - "Ivan". However, in itself, the creation of a bomb and its testing in the ground version did not yet solve the issue of eliminating a potential enemy, because for effective application it was necessary to deliver the bomb to the point of application. And the carrier of a 100-megaton thermonuclear munition had to meet the relevant requirements: have a large carrying capacity, range, speed and flight altitude. After appropriate consultations of nuclear scientists and aviators, it was proposed to use the developments in the creation of the Tu-95 aircraft.
Preparations for the explosion of the "Tsar Bomba" began five years before the appointed day. In the language of military nuclear scientists, it was called very prosaically - "product 202", but had hitherto unknown dimensions: an eight-meter bomb with a diameter of two meters weighed 26 tons. To lift such a colossus into the air, a special alteration of the Tu-95 long-range strategic bomber was required.
And that day "H" has come. On October 30, at 9:27 am, the commander of the airship, Major Andrey Durnovtsev, lifted the super-heavy machine into the air. Following him, the backup aircraft Tu-16 took off. In one formation, they moved along a strictly classified route to the discharge area on Novaya Zemlya.
Before dropping the super-bomb, the backup aircraft went 15 kilometers ahead in order to avoid unnecessary risk. Major Durnovtsev and his entire crew of eight people were supposed to meet an explosion in the air, unprecedented in the history of the planet. No one could guarantee their safe return.
Says the head of the test department of the Novaya Zemlya test site Serafim Mikhailovich Kulikov:
“The crucial moment has come - from a flight altitude of 10,500 meters at 11:30 a.m., a bomb was dropped on the D-2 target in the Matochkina Shara area. The tension of the crew reached a climax - what will happen next? Separation from the aircraft of cargo weighing 26 tons for the crew was very noticeable: a vibration effect appeared on the plane, that is, according to the definition of the pilots, the plane “sat on its tail.” The effect was parried by the intervention of the pilot - all the crew's attention was focused on tracking the separated product.
According to the reports of the crews of the Tu-95 and Tu-16, as well as the records of the recording equipment, the superbomb separated from the Tu-95 carrier aircraft, and the withdrawal of the parachute system began. Finally, it happened - at the 188th second after the separation of the super bomb from the plane, the island New Earth was illuminated by a glow of unprecedented brightness.
The flash was observed for 65-70 seconds, and its very bright part - for 25-30 seconds. The explosion of the product occurred on command from barometric sensors, as planned, at an altitude of 4000 meters above the target. At the time of the outbreak, the carrier aircraft was 40 kilometers from the explosion, and the backup aircraft (laboratory) was 55 kilometers away. After the end of the light exposure on the aircraft, the autopilots were turned off - in anticipation of the arrival shock wave switched to manual control. The shock wave affected the aircraft many times, starting from a distance of 115 kilometers from the explosion for the carrier and 250 kilometers for the backup aircraft. The impact of the shock wave for the crews was quite noticeable, but did not cause any difficulties in piloting."
Nevertheless, the pilots experienced many unpleasant moments. During the outbreak, it became hot in the cockpits, closed with opaque curtains, there was a smell of burning, smoke was drawn from the workplace of the navigator-scorer.
- Burning? - said the commander of the ship.
Fortunately, it soon became clear that the fire did not happen - only dust and lint flared up, and the winding of the bundles located between the glazing and light-protective curtains smoked. The worst was in the aft cockpit, facing directly towards the explosion. It was so hot there that the air gunner burned his face and hands.
"When shooting the development of the explosion cloud, an approaching shock wave was observed in the form of an expanding bluish sphere. It was visible passing through the aircraft. By the time the shock wave arrived, the autopilot was turned off. Piloting the aircraft continued in manual control mode. The aircraft was affected by three shock waves - the first through 1 minute 37 seconds after the explosion, the second after 1 minute 52 seconds and the third after 2 minutes 37 seconds The first wave was the most noticeable - a powerful blow shook the plane. subsequent waves were less powerful, and the impact of the third was perceived as a weak push of the aircraft.When the shock waves passed through the aircraft, barometric instruments (altitudes, flight speeds and variometers) that are connected with the atmosphere began to give increased readings, their arrows several times moved to different sides. The process of development of the explosion cloud lasted for 8-9 minutes, the height of its upper edge reached 15-16 km, the diameter was 30-40 km. The color of the cloud was crimson, and the stem-stem was bluish-gray. Cloudiness (usual) at the base of the stem of the radioactive cloud was noticeably drawn into it. After 10-12 min. after the explosion, the dome of the cloud began to stretch in the wind, and after 15 minutes. The cloud took on an elongated shape.
The Tu-16 laboratory aircraft under the command of Major K. Lyasnikov received a truly suicidal task: to head for a fireball and study how a nuclear explosion affects an aircraft. And he went to do the job. It is hard to imagine what nerves one had to have in order to fly a plane towards the most terrible thing that could happen on planet Earth. Lyasnikov says:
“After the explosion, we saw the usual bright light. But it’s one thing to immediately turn the plane around and another thing to go straight to the flash. I see that there is no mushroom yet, only the fireball rages, swells. Then it becomes a kilometer or more in size, already with dirty spots. The black pillar lifts it up and throws it up. We urgently need to return - otherwise death. And the ball-cloud is almost there. When you see hell unfolding next to you, believe me, it’s not up to delight ... This, I tell you, is worse, than in a horror movie ... Is it up to following the instructions at such a moment? I make a seventy-degree bank - an unthinkable turn I lay at an altitude of eleven thousand meters. And it saves ... "
Not everyone could stand the nerves in this test. One of the pilots who went to the nuclear "thunderstorm" honestly confessed to the head of the test department S. Kulikov:
“Seraphim, don’t scold and don’t shame me - they couldn’t complete the task completely. A seething fiery wall formed ahead of us along the flight. Our nerves could not stand it, and we turned around the explosion cloud at a distance far from the set one.”
The most powerful explosion on the planet serial number 130. This was the most grandiose military propaganda action of the century, and perhaps in the entire history of mankind: after all, the explosion of the superbomb was timed to coincide with the next - XXII Congress of the CPSU. His delegates did not even suspect about the gift, which was prepared for them by their native "defense industry".
A well-known connoisseur of the Arctic, who has worked in the hydrometeorological service of the Northern Sea Route on Dixon for more than twenty years, Nikolai Grigorievich Babich knows well how that old record explosion backfired on the North.
"The blast wave circled three times Earth. Then for many more years we took people away from the islands of the Kara Sea, covered with a radioactive cloud. However, no one wanted to diagnose radiation sickness... People were somehow treated. But thousands of polar bears died from overexposure. Today, the surface of the islands does not "phonite" in any way. But after all, those 5-6 million curies thrown out by that explosion into the sky of the Arctic did not go away. They were scattered all over the world. And the half-life of this muck is hundreds of years ... "
The well-known historian of the Cold War, Rear Admiral Georgy Kostev, says:
“Only fifty megatons rushed over the Matochkin Ball. And initially they planned all one hundred. But scientists began to fear for the state earth's crust- not to break through ... "
No one counted how many birds burned in that man-made nuclear sun. And those that survived were blind. The fishermen said that the flight of blind gulls resembled the fluttering of bats. Most of them rocked silently on the waves, silently dying of hunger.
The layout of the "Tsar Bomba" AN602, among the creators of which was Academician Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, is now kept in the Arzamas-16 Museum. The head of one of the research institutes there, Colonel-General Negin, told British television reporters that the Sakharovites, inspired by the super-powerful explosion, offered Khrushchev a super project under code name"Armageddon": send a ship filled with deuterium in 100 megatons of TNT equivalent to the Atlantic. Sheathe it with sheets of cobalt, so that when the metal evaporates in nuclear hell, a powerful radioactive contamination occurs. Khrushchev thought and thought... And refused.
Thermonuclear aerial bomb AN602 - the most powerful explosive device, which mankind has applied throughout history. Work on its creation was carried out for more than seven years from autumn 1954 to autumn 1961. AN602 had a three-stage design: the first-stage nuclear charge (the estimated contribution to the explosion power is 1.5 megatons) launched thermonuclear reaction in the second stage (the contribution to the explosion power is 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the nuclear "Jekyll-Hyde reaction" (fission of nuclei in uranium-238 blocks under the action of fast neutrons produced as a result of thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stages (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total design capacity of AN602 was 101.5 megatons. The original version of the bomb was rejected due to the extremely high level radioactive contamination, which she was supposed to cause, so it was decided not to use the "Jekyll-Hyde reaction" in the third stage of the bomb and replace the uranium components with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total explosion power by almost half.
The bomb showed a power greater than the calculated one - 57 megatons. Simultaneously with it, competing development teams made bombs of 25 and 100 megatons, but they were never tested. And thank God.
Explosion AN602 according to the classification was a low air explosion of extra high power. His results were impressive:
- The fireball of the explosion reached a radius of approximately 4.6 kilometers. Theoretically, it could grow to the surface of the earth, but this was prevented by a reflected shock wave that crushed the bottom of the ball and threw the ball off the ground.
- Light radiation could potentially cause third-degree burns at distances up to 100 kilometers.
- Nuclear mushroom explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers; the diameter of its two-tier "hat" reached (near the upper tier) 95 kilometers.
- A tangible seismic wave resulting from the explosion circled the globe three times.
- Witnesses felt the impact and were able to describe the explosion at a distance of a thousand kilometers from its center.
- The sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dixon Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers.
- The power of the explosion exceeded the total power of all explosives used during the First and Second World Wars, including the two American atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (16 kilotons and 21 kilotons, respectively).
The hydrogen bomb remains the most destructive weapon: according to experts, a 20 megaton explosion can level all residential buildings within a radius of 24 km and destroy all life at a distance of 140 km from the epicenter.
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. Photo and video of test materials, according to at least, is not in the public domain.
10. Evie Mike
On November 1, 1952, the United States for the first time in the world tested a 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 series of tests thermonuclear bombs a fundamentally different design than the "Evie Mike" (more practical, although still inapplicable as a weapon). Romeo's capacity was 11 megatons and it was the first bomb detonated on a barge in the open ocean - this would later become the standard for American nuclear testing, 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 tested 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.
On October 30, 1961, the most powerful bomb in the world was tested - the thermonuclear Tsar Bomba, later called Kuzkina's Mother, was dropped on the Dry Nose test site. Today we remember this and other explosions of enormous destructive power.
Mankind spends huge amounts of money and gigantic efforts to create weapons that are most effective in destroying their own kind. And, as science and history show, it succeeds in this. About what will happen to our planet if all of a sudden on Earth erupts nuclear war, many films have been shot and more than a dozen books have been written. But the most terrible is still a dry description of the weapons tests carried out. mass destruction, reports couched in tight clerical military language.
A projectile of incredible power was developed under the guidance of Kurchatov himself. As a result of seven years of work, the most powerful explosive device in the history of mankind was created. According to various sources, the bomb had from 57 to 58.6 megatons of TNT equivalent. For comparison, the explosion of the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT. How many troubles she has done, many know.
"Tsar Bomba" served as a demonstration of the power of the USSR to the Western community
The explosion resulted in a fireball with a radius of about 4.6 kilometers. The light radiation was so powerful that it could cause third-degree burns at a distance of about 100 kilometers from the explosion site. The seismic wave resulting from the tests circled the globe three times. The nuclear mushroom rose to a height of 67 kilometers, and the diameter of its "cap" was 95 kilometers.
This is not the sun. This is a flash from the explosion of the "Tsar Bomba"
Tests of the "Mother of all bombs"
Until 2007, the American high-explosive aerial bomb, affectionately known as Mother Of All Bombs by the US military, was considered the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world. The projectile is over 9 meters long and weighs 9.5 tons. And most of this weight falls on the explosive. The force of the explosion is 11 tons of TNT. That is, two "Moms" are enough to smash the average metropolis into dust. However, the fact that so far bombs of this type have not been used in the course of hostilities is encouraging. But one of the "Moms" was sent to Iraq just in case. Apparently, counting on the fact that peacekeepers cannot do without weighty arguments.
"Mother of all bombs" was the most powerful non-nuclear weapon until "Dad of all bombs" appeared
According to the official description of the ammunition, "the power of the MOAB explosion is enough to destroy tanks and people on the surface within a few hundred meters and demoralize the troops in the vicinity who survived the explosion."
Explosion at the tests of the "Dad of all bombs"
This is our answer to the Americans - the development of an increased power aviation vacuum bomb, unofficially called the "Dad of all bombs." The ammunition was created in 2007 and now it is this bomb that is considered the most powerful non-nuclear projectile in the world.
Bomb test reports say that the area of destruction of the "Papa" is so large that it allows to reduce the cost of production of ammunition by reducing the requirements for accuracy. Indeed, why a targeted hit if it blows everything around within a radius of 200 meters. And even at a distance of more than two kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, a person will be knocked down by a shock wave. After all, the power of the "Papa" is four times greater than the "Mom" - the force of the explosion of a vacuum bomb is 44 tons of TNT. As individual achievement testers argue about the environmental friendliness of the projectile. “The test results of the created aviation munition showed that in terms of its effectiveness and capabilities it is commensurate with a nuclear munition, at the same time, I want to emphasize this in particular, the effect of this munition does not pollute environment compared to a nuclear weapon,” the report says. chief General Staff Russian Armed Forces Alexander Rukshin.
"Daddy of all bombs" is about four times more powerful than "Mom"
"Kid" and "Fat Man": Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The names of these two Japanese cities have long been synonymous with major catastrophes. The US military actually tested atomic bombs on humans, dropping shells on Hiroshima on August 6, and on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Most of the victims of the explosions were not military at all, but civilians. Children, women, old people - their bodies instantly turned into coal. There were only silhouettes on the walls - this is how light radiation acted. Birds flying nearby burned up in the air.
"Mushrooms" of nuclear explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Until now, the number of victims has not been accurately determined: many died not immediately, but later, as a result of developed radiation sickness. "Kid" with an approximate capacity of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, dropped on Hiroshima, killed from 90 to 166 thousand people. In Nagasaki, "Fat Man" with a capacity of 21 kilotons of TNT cut off the lives of 60 to 90 thousand people.
"Fat Man" and "Baby" exhibited in the museum - as a reminder of the destructive power of nuclear weapons
This was the first and so far the only case when the force of a nuclear weapon was used in the course of hostilities.
The fall of the Tunguska meteorite: the most powerful miraculous explosion
The Podkamennaya Tunguska River was of no interest to anyone until June 17, 1908. On this day, at about seven o'clock in the morning, a huge fireball swept over the territory of the Yenisei basin and exploded over the taiga near Tunguska. Now everyone knows about this river, and versions of what exploded over the taiga have since been published for every taste: from the invasion of aliens to the manifestation of the power of angry gods. However, the main and generally accepted cause of the explosion is still the fall of a meteorite.
The explosion was so powerful that over an area of more than two thousand square kilometers trees were toppled. Windows were shattered in houses located hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. A few days after the explosion in the territory from the Atlantic to central Siberia, people saw the sky and clouds glow.
Scientists have calculated the approximate power of the explosion - from 40 to 50 megatons of TNT. That is, comparable to the power of the Tsar Bomba, the most destructive man-made bomb. It remains only to be glad that Tunguska meteorite fell in a remote taiga, far from villages and villages.
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 got bogged down in positional warfare and trench seating and returned to the tactics of digging tunnels and laying underground mines of monstrous power under the enemy’s fortifications.
At the same time, two explosions occurred during the First World War. great strength, 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 for a 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 press 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 the 15-kilometer ledge of the 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 of groundwater in the blue clay layer. Data engineering work was preceded by serious geodetic work and the 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 during aerial reconnaissance. The English underground galleries began about 400 meters behind their lines of defense. Since the German positions in this sector of the front went along the heights, the tunnels passed under the defense of the German troops at a depth of up to 25-36 meters, and in some places up to 50 meters. The 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.
The offensive of the 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 lines of German trenches were destroyed, and craters appeared at the site of the fortifications. giant size. 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 people died. German soldiers, another 7,200 soldiers and 145 officers of the German army were taken prisoner, being demoralized and unable to offer serious resistance. Craters from those terrible explosions have 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 of the German troops. And if in this case such explosions could be justified by military necessity, then in December of that year, the largest explosion of the pre-nuclear era shook 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 company. 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. The Canadian Halifax turned out to be an intermediate point on the transport route, where convoys were being formed, sent across the Atlantic.
"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 the data 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 9,000 people were injured, including 500 who lost their sight, having suffered from scattered glass fragments. Wherein Northern part 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
The 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 United States in the port city of Port Chicago, an explosion occurred 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 Heligoland 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 remaining fortifications of the Third Reich submarine base, as well as conduct seismic studies.
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, a total of 6,700 tons of various explosives, had been brought to the island. 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 South part Helgoland Island turned into a huge crater, 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 code-named "Sailor Hat" (literally, a 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 of the shock wave of high-power explosions on 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 american dollars.
The impact of the explosions on the internal equipment of the ships was 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
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 a so-called theory big bang.
The largest nuclear explosions
At the time of " cold war» 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 caused radioactive contamination of a 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. Before maximum size mushroom grew 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. Exploded in Hiroshima atomic bomb"Kid", because of which approximately one hundred and sixty-six thousand people died. Both of these bombings were the first use of such powerful weapon as a combat.
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 H-bomb exploded on the island of Novaya Zemlya. 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. The British army blew up the tunnels, laying nineteen large mines, thus demoralizing the enemy. As a result, about ten thousand Germans died. In 1913, a Welsh cargo ship exploded carrying dynamite needed to build the Panama Canal. The mass of dynamite was three hundred and forty-three tons. 
Another non-nuclear explosion is the explosion of a 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 for the Second world war. Battleships, cruisers, aircraft carriers, steamships, artillery cellars exploded.
Already in Peaceful time Explosions continued around the world. Trainloads of explosives exploded, 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 agoFor what reasons the explosion occurred is not clear. This object, endowed with properties incomprehensible to us, began to expand at a tremendous 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 large planets appeared. .
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