Friday, October 30, 2009

48 Years Ago Today

The Soviet Union detonated the single largest blast ever created by mankind... Tsar Bomba.
The original U.S. estimate of the yield was 57 Mt, but since 1991 all Russian sources have stated its yield as 50 Mt. Khrushchev warned in a filmed speech to the Communist parliament of the existence of a 100 Mt bomb (technically the design was capable of this yield).
The radius of the fireball (seen above) was 4 km, or a diameter of five miles. The energy released in the blast was roughly equivalent to ten times the entire firepower unleashed in WWII- including the two US fission bombs.

Yeah, that could ruin your day. (Hat tip to More Words, Deeper Hole)

1 comment:

Charlie said...

Can you imagine what our parents were thinking, us in their arms at the time?

Holy cow.