The most powerful nuclear explosions in the history of mankind. The biggest explosions: in the world, in history

With the development of technological progress, people have more opportunities, but the results of the tragedies and accidents that led to the explosions have become much larger. Of course, the biggest explosion that occurred due to the fault of people, the consequences can not be compared with natural disasters of a planetary and even cosmic scale, but the consequences are amazing.

TOP 10 biggest explosions in history

The cause of the death of six hundred people in 1947 was the explosion of the SS Grandcamp cargo ship, which held 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which is a component of explosives. The tragedy was triggered by a fire on the ship, but the consequences would have become much less tragic if it had not been for the shock wave that aggravated the situation.

Because of it, two planes flying past and another vessel with 1000 tons of nitrate on board exploded. The chain reaction has covered local factories. In addition to those killed by explosions and fires, 3,500 people were injured. Although there have been more widespread cases of human casualties in the world, it is precisely the Texas catastrophe in first place in the list of impressive explosions.

The second place in the ranking is occupied by an explosion on a French ship in the Canadian port of Halifax. A ship with weapons and explosives collided with a Belgian ship, so the cargo simply detonated - an explosion occurred with a force of 3 kilotons in TNT equivalent. This happened during the First World War, in 1917.

The shock wave not only raised a dust cloud up to 6.1 km above the port, but also caused the formation of an 18-meter tornado. After the explosion in a radius of 2 km, there were no survivors at all. The victims of the tragedy were 11 thousand people - 2000 were killed, 9000 people were injured. This incident is the largest man-made random explosion in human history.

Everyone heard about - this tragedy occurred in 1986 in the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl. A nuclear explosion in the reactor of a nuclear power plant has caused the largest in terms of the consequences of the disaster.

The force of the explosion tore off the lid of a reactor weighing 2,000 tons. Radioactive particles polluted 200 thousand square kilometers of land. The cities of Chernobyl, Pripyat and the surrounding areas became an exclusion zone - residents were evacuated. As for the human casualties, 600,000 people were exposed to radiation, and the consequences of this disaster are still felt - a video about all kinds of mutations can be found on the Internet.

Another destructive in terms of impact explosion occurred in the town of Trinity in New Mexico. It was there that the first atomic explosion was carried out, whose strength corresponded to 20 kilotons in TNT equivalent.

The bomb tests were successful, and state residents received a radiation dose thousands of times higher than the permissible level. Tests have caused numerous diseases, including in unborn children.

5. Tunguska.   The largest meteorite explosion occurred in 1908 near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, after which a 20-meter meteorite was named.

Despite its modest size, the mass of the celestial body was 185 thousand tons, and the impact affected an area of \u200b\u200b2000 square kilometers. According to scientists, the explosion from a collision of a fragment of a comet or an asteroid with the earth in strength amounted to 4 megatons in TNT equivalent.

The largest volcano explosion recorded by mankind occurred in 1815. The explosion on Mount Tambora in Indonesia was equivalent to 1,000 megatons of TNT. Explosive volcanic eruption caused the release of 140 billion tons of magma, which flooded the islands of Sumba and Lombok.

The death toll was 71,000. The survivors suffered not only from the eruption, but also from climate change, which provoked the ashes rising into the air: the next year after the eruption in Indonesia, snow suddenly fell and destroyed the crop. The onset of famine killed hundreds of thousands more.

The reason for the appearance of this crater is unknown, but the size is simply amazing - a natural object discovered in 1978 on the Yucatan Peninsula has a diameter of about 180 kilometers.

Scientists suggest that it was the cataclysm on the Gulf of Mexico that became the last point in the process of climate change on the earth and the extinction of dinosaurs. The blast wave destroyed half of the living things on the planet 65 million years ago.

As for the largest cataclysm in the universe that mankind has observed, this is a collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and the planet Jupiter in 1994.

  Explosion of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

The comet on approaching the planet was crushed into pieces by a giant force of gravity. But since each of the fragments reached 3 km in width, the consequences of this collision are terrifying. The explosion from the impact of a comet on the planet left behind a funnel 12,000 km wide. This is comparable to the size of the Earth. The force of the explosion corresponded to 6,000 gigatons in TNT equivalent.

9. Explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.   that accelerated the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II, became the only cases in history of the use of nuclear weapons. On August 6, 1945, the Malysh bomb was dropped on Hiroshima - 3.2 meters in length, 0.7 meters in diameter, weighing 4 tons.

The power of the bomb was 13-18 kilotons of TNT. The Fat Man bomb, dropped 3 days later on Nagasaki, had a length of 3.25 meters, a diameter of 1.54 meters, a weight of 4.6 tons and an explosion power of 21 kilotons of TNT. Destroyed cities, 220 thousand dead and polluted territories on which no one lives, were the result of the explosion of the largest bombs in the history of mankind.

10. The battle of Messina.   The largest non-nuclear explosion was recorded June 7-14, 1917 in Flanders near the village of Mesen. Preparation for the explosion lasted 15 months - the British dug 20 tunnels under the second groundwater level, delving into the ground by 25-50 meters. In tunnels with a total length of 7.3 km laid 600 tons of explosives.

Since the underground mined tunnels are located just below the place of deployment of German troops, the British simply covered this section with artillery fire. The explosion destroyed the lines of the German trenches, forming funnels with a diameter of up to 80 meters and a depth of 27 meters. The result of the operation was the death of 10 thousand German soldiers. 7200 soldiers were captured - the demoralized troops did not show resistance. Craters have remained so far and have turned into artificial reservoirs.

Railway accident near Ufa, USSR. At the time of passing two passenger trains No. 211 Novosibirsk-Adler and No. 212 Adler-Novosibirsk, a powerful explosion of an unlimited cloud of wide fractions of light hydrocarbons occurred as a result of an accident at the nearby Siberia-Ural-Volga pipeline. 575 people died, 181 of them were children, more than 600 were injured.
An explosion of a large volume of gas distributed in space had the character of a volume explosion. The power of the explosion was estimated at 250-300 tons of trinitrotoluene. According to other estimates, the power of a volume explosion could reach 12 kilotons of TNT, which is comparable to the power of a nuclear explosion in Hiroshima (16 kilotons) /

  Explosion of a train in Arzamas. 3 cars were detonated, carrying a total of 121 tons of RDX intended for mining enterprises. During the explosion, the train followed through a railway crossing in the city of Arzamas.
  The explosion destroyed 151 houses, more than 800 families were left homeless. According to official figures, 91 people died, 1,500 people were injured. 250 meters of the railway track were destroyed, the railway station was damaged, the electrical substation, power lines were destroyed, the gas pipeline was damaged. 2 hospitals, 49 kindergartens, 14 schools, 69 stores were affected.

  Explosion during the second launch of the LV N1, USSR. An accident due to abnormal operation of engine No. 8 of block A and the shutdown of all engines for 23 seconds. The carrier fell to the launch site. As a result of the largest explosion in the history of rocket science, one launch pad was completely destroyed, and the second was seriously damaged.

  British Engineers fired on Helgoland Island. The purpose of the explosion was the destruction of German bunkers and structures. About 4,000 torpedo warheads, 9,000 underwater bombs, 91,000 grenades of various calibers — a total of 6,700 tons of explosives — were blown up. Rating - 3.2 ct. Included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest detonation of explosives.

  Texas City. An explosion of up to 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate and subsequent fires and explosions killed at least 581 people.

  During the loading of ammonal in Nakhodka, the explosion of the Dalstroy steamboat occurred. Detonated 400 tons of TNT.

  The explosion of the ship “Fort Stykin”, Bombay - 1400 tons of explosives, killing about 800 people.

  the explosion of the cellars of the stern towers of the battleship Mutsu. More than 1000 dead.

  The Battle of Messina is an explosion of 19 huge mines, containing a total of more than 455 tons of ammonium explosives. About 10 thousand Germans were killed.

  in the battle of Jutland - as a result of an explosion art. 3 British ships Indefatigable (1,015 dead), Queen Mary (1,262 dead), Invincible (1,026 dead) sank in the cellars.

After the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, more than 2051 other nuclear weapons tests around the world were recorded.

No other force personifies such an absolute destructive action as nuclear weapons. And this type of weapon quickly becomes even more powerful within decades after the first test.

The nuclear bomb test in 1945 had a capacity of 20 kilotons, that is, the bomb had an explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT. For 20 years, the United States and the USSR tested nuclear weapons with a total mass of more than 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of TNT. For scale, it is at least 500 times stronger than the first atomic bomb. In order to bring the size of the largest nuclear explosions in history to scale, data were derived using Nukemap Alex Wellerstein, a device for visualizing the terrifying effects of a nuclear explosion in the real world.

In the above maps, the first ring of the explosion is a ball of fire, followed by the radius of radiation. In the pink radius, almost all the destruction of buildings and with a fatal outcome of 100% is displayed. In a gray radius, stronger buildings will withstand the explosion. In the orange radius, people will suffer third-degree burns, and combustible materials will catch fire, resulting in possible fire storms.

The largest nuclear explosions

Soviet tests 158 and 168

On August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month from each other, nuclear tests were conducted in the USSR over the Novaya Zemlya region of Russia, on an archipelago in northern Russia near the Arctic Ocean.

No test videos or photos were left, but both tests included the use of 10 megaton atomic bombs. These explosions would burn everything within 1.77 square miles at the epicenter, causing third-degree burns to victims in an area of \u200b\u200b1,090 square miles.

Ivy mike

On November 1, 1952, the USA was tested by Ivy Mike over the Marshall Islands. Ivy Mike is the world's first hydrogen bomb and had a capacity of 10.4 megatons, which is 700 times stronger than the first atomic bomb.

The explosion of Ivy Mike was so powerful that the island of Elugelab evaporated where it was blown up, resulting in its place a 164-foot deep crater.

Castle romeo

Romeo was the second nuclear explosion in a series of tests conducted by the United States in 1954. All explosions were carried out on Bikini Atoll. Romeo was the third most powerful test of the series and had a capacity of about 11 megatons.

Romeo was the first to be tested on a barge in open waters, not on a reef, as the US quickly ran out of islands where nuclear weapons could be tested. The blast will burn everything within 1.91 square miles.

Soviet Test 123

On October 23, 1961, the Soviet Union conducted nuclear test No. 123 over Novaya Zemlya. Test 123 was a 12.5 megaton nuclear bomb. A bomb of this size will burn everything within 2.11 square miles, causing third-degree burns to people on an area of \u200b\u200b1309 square miles. This test also left no records.

Castle yankee

Castle Yankee, the second most powerful of a series of tests, was carried out on May 4, 1954. The bomb had a capacity of 13.5 megatons. Four days later, its decay fallout reached Mexico City, not a distance of about 7,100 miles.

Castle bravo

Castle Bravo was held February 28, 1954, was the first of a series of Castle tests and the largest nuclear explosion in the United States of all time.

Bravo was originally speculated as a 6 megaton explosion. Instead, the bomb produced a 15 megaton explosion. His mushroom reached 114,000 feet in the air.

The miscalculation of the US military had consequences in the amount of exposure to about 665 residents of the Marshall Islands and the death from radiation exposure of a Japanese fisherman who was 80 miles from the site of the explosion.

Soviet tests 173, 174 and 147

From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR conducted a series of nuclear tests over Novaya Zemlya. Test 173, 174, 147 and all stand out as the fifth, fourth, and third strongest nuclear explosions in history.

All three explosions carried out had a power of 20 Megatons, or about 1000 times stronger than the Trinity nuclear bomb. A bomb of this force will blow everything within its three square miles.

Test 219, Soviet Union

On December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted test No. 219, with a capacity of 24.2 megatons above Novaya Zemlya. A bomb of this strength can burn everything within 3.58 square miles, causing third degree burns in an area of \u200b\u200bup to 2250 square miles.

Tsar bomb

On October 30, 1961, the USSR blew up the largest nuclear weapon ever tested and created the largest man-made explosion in history. The explosion, which is 3,000 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

A flash of light from the explosion was visible at a distance of 620 miles.

The Tsar bomb ultimately had a power between 50 and 58 megatons, twice the size of the second largest nuclear explosion.

A bomb of this size will create a fireball of 6.4 square miles and will be able to inflict third degree burns within 4080 square miles of the epicenter of the bomb.

First atomic bomb

The first atomic explosion was the size of the King Bomb, and still the explosion is considered to be of almost unimaginable size.

According to NukeMap, this weapon with a capacity of 20 kilotons produces a fireball with a radius of 260 m, about 5 football fields. It is estimated that the bomb will suffer deadly radiation measuring 7 miles wide and will burn third degree burns over a distance of more than 12 miles. When using such a bomb in lower Manhattan, more than 150,000 people will be killed and the effects of radioactive fallout will extend to central Connecticut, according to NukeMap calculations.

The first atomic bomb was tiny by the standards of nuclear weapons. But its destructiveness is still very great for perception.

TASS DOSSIER. On November 17, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, stated that the A321 catastrophe over Sinai, where more than 220 people died, was a terrorist attack. According to him, traces of foreign-made explosives were found on the wreckage and things.

Less than two weeks after the events in Egypt, terrorists launched a series of attacks in Paris. 129 people died, over 350 were injured. This is the second largest number of terrorist attacks in Europe after Madrid, when 190 people died in bombings at train stations in 2004.

Listed below are the 10 largest victims of terrorist attacks in the world, with the exception of attacks that occurred in countries where there was a military conflict at that time. In eight cases, terrorist attacks were staged by radical Islamist groups.

The September 11 attacks in the United States. 2996 dead

On September 11, 2001, in the USA, suicide bombers from the al-Qaeda terrorist organization hijacked passenger planes and crashed into them at two towers of the World Trade Center (New York) and at the Pentagon building - the headquarters of the US Department of Defense (Arlington County) , pieces of Virginia). The fourth captured liner crashed near Shanksville (pc. Pennsylvania). As a result of this world's largest series of terrorist attacks, 2 thousand 996 people were killed, more than 6 thousand people were injured. The organizer of the attack was the al-Qaeda group and its leader, Osama bin Laden.

Beslan. Russia. 335 dead

On September 1, 2004, in Beslan (North Ossetia-Alania), militants led by Ruslan Khuchbarov (Rasul) captured more than 1 thousand 100 students of school number 1, their relatives and teachers. On September 2, after negotiations with the ex-president of the Republic of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, the bandits released 25 women and children. On September 3, shooting and explosions began at the school, which forced the assault to begin. Most of the hostages were released, 335 people died. Among the dead are 186 children, 17 teachers and school staff, 10 employees of the FSB of Russia, two employees of the Ministry of Emergencies. The militants were destroyed, only one survived - Nurpashi Kulaev (in 2006 he was sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment due to a moratorium on the execution of death sentences). Responsibility for the attack took on the international terrorist Shamil Basaev (liquidated in 2006).

Boeing 747 Air India. 329 dead

June 23, 1985 a passenger plane Boeing 747 of Air India, following the flight AI182 on the route Montreal (Canada) - London - Delhi, crashed in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland. The cause of the disaster was the explosion of a bomb planted in luggage by Indian Sikh extremists. The crash killed all 329 people on board (307 passengers and 22 crew members). Canadian citizen Ingerjit Singh Reyat was sentenced to 5 years in prison on charges of participating in the preparation of a terrorist attack in 2003. Prior to that, he served a 10-year prison sentence for preparing an explosion at Narita Airport (Japan), which occurred on the same day as the VT-EFO crash. Rayyat was later charged with false testimony and sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2011.

Boko Haram attack in Nigeria. More than 300 dead

May 5-6, 2014 as a result of a night attack on the city of Gamboru, Borno State, more than 300 residents were killed by militants. Survivors fled to neighboring Cameroon. Most of the city was destroyed.

The attack on Lockerbie. 270 dead

On December 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 passenger plane of Pan Am airline (USA), performing regular flight 103 along the route Frankfurt am Main - London - New York - Detroit, crashed in the air over Lockerbie (Scotland). On board a bomb planted in baggage exploded. Killed all 243 passengers and 16 crew members on board, as well as 11 people on the ground. In 1991, two citizens of Libya were charged with organizing an explosion. In 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to transfer both suspects to a Dutch court. One of them, Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted on January 31, 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment (released in 2009 due to a fatal illness diagnosed with him, died in 2012). In 2003, the Libyan authorities recognized responsibility for the attack and paid compensation in the total amount of 2.7 billion US dollars - 10 million dollars for each victim.

Terrorist attacks in Bombay. India. 257 dead

March 12, 1993 in the crowded places of Bombay (now Mumbai) at the same time 13 explosive devices planted in cars were fired. 257 people became victims of the terrorist attack, over 700 were injured. The investigation established that the organizers of the bombings were Islamic terrorists. The attack was a response to the clashes between Muslims and Hindus that had occurred in the city before. One of the organizers, Yakub Memon, was sentenced to death, which was executed on July 30, 2015. Two of his accomplices are on the wanted list.

A321 Kogalymavia airplane. 224 dead

On October 31, 2015, the Airbus A321-231 passenger plane (registration number EI-ETJ) of the Russian airline Metrojet (Kogalymavia), flying on flight 9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg, crashed 100 km from El Arish in the north of the Sinai Peninsula. Onboard were 224 people - 217 passengers and seven crew members, all of them died.

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that those responsible and involved in the terrorist attack on the plane will be found and punished. "We must do this without a statute of limitations, to know them all by name. We will look for them wherever they hide. We will find them anywhere in the world and punish them," Putin assured.

Undermining US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 224 dead

On August 7, 1998 in Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (the former capital of Tanzania), two terrorist attacks occurred at the same time, the purpose of which was the US embassies in these countries. Parked trucks filled with explosives exploded near the embassies. A total of 224 people were killed, including 12 US citizens, the rest are local residents. The bombing was organized by al-Qaida.

The attacks in Mumbai. India. 209 dead

On July 11, 2006, Islamic terrorists launched explosive devices hidden in pressure cookers that were loaded into the wagons of seven suburban trains in the suburbs of Mumbai (Khar Road, Bandra, Jogeshvari, Makhim, Borivli, Matunga stations "and Mira Road.) The attack occurred during the evening rush hour. Killed 209 people, more than 700 were injured. At the end of the investigation of the crime, the court sentenced 12 people to various prison terms, 5 of them were sentenced to death.

The attack in Bali. Indonesia. 202 dead

On October 12, 2002, as a result of a suicide bombing attack and a car bomb explosion near night clubs in the resort town of Kuta (Bali Island), 202 people were killed, 164 of them were foreign tourists. 209 people were injured. In the case of involvement in the attack, about 30 people were arrested. In 2003, an Indonesian court recognized the organizers of the attack as a number of members of the Jamaah Islamiya organization. In 2008, three of them - Abdul Aziz, also known as Imam Samudra, Amrozi bin Nurhasim and Ali (Muklas) Gurfon - were shot by court order. Muklas’s brother Ali Imron was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Al-Qaeda mentioned in the article is included in the Unified Federal List of organizations recognized as terrorist in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Their activities in the Russian Federation are prohibited.

Definition of this small explosion with a power in TNT equivalent of 24 tons (in fact, there were two explosions - the first in three tons, the second in 21) as the largest non-nuclear explosion in human history is already in full swing. What of course is absolute nonsense.

There have been many explosions in history, an order of magnitude, two orders of magnitude, and even three orders of magnitude stronger than what happened at night. Officially, the most powerful pre-planned non-nuclear explosion is considered to be the British detonation of the strengthening of the German Helgoland bay on April 18, 1947, when 6,700 tons of explosives were used (4,000 torpedo warheads, 9,000 depth bombs, 91,000 various artillery shells). Explosion power was 3.2 kt TNT

Thus, the power of the Helgoland explosion was four times less than the power of an atomic bomb in Hiroshima.It is clear that during the explosion none of the people was injured, and the explosion itself was documented in detail. The island was returned to Germany in 1952. Now this is a resort place on which, attention, it is forbidden to use bicycles.

However, in 1985-93 in the United States at the White Sands training ground in the state of New Mexico, a series of 5 non-nuclear explosions was conducted, the power of two of which, known as the Minority Scale and Minority Picture, exceeded the explosion power at Helgoland: 4,304 ct June 27, 1985 years and 4.25 kt on May 14, 1987.

But the most "bugabum" in no way connected with the reaction of fission of uranium nuclei occurred in the USSR, at the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 3, 1969, when during the second launch of the Soviet "lunar" launch vehicle N-1. The launch of the rocket went fine, but at a height of 200 meters the engines of the first stage began to turn off one by one, the last, the 18th launched the rocket 90 degrees and at the 23rd second of the flight it crashed flat on the launch pad. As a result of the explosion, our capacity is estimated at 5 kT of TNT equivalent, and in the west (based on the amount of fuel on board the rocket) at 7 kt, the launch pad was destroyed and the neighboring one was badly damaged.

It should be noted that all four H-1 launches ended in accidents, but only in the second case the explosion of the entire rocket occurred directly on the ground.

Interestingly, not one person was injured during the four most powerful non-nuclear explosions in the history of mankind.

The largest “unorganized” explosions in peacetime are the explosion of a load of ammonium nitrate on the Grandcamp dry cargo ship that occurred in Texas City on April 16, 1947 (just two days before the explosion in Helgoland), whose capacity is estimated at 2.7-3.2 CT TNT, as a result of which, and subsequent fires in the city on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, 581 people were killed and another 8,451 were injured, as well as a series of explosions on the Cypriot naval base Evangelos Florakis on July 11, 2011 in total of about the same power. In the case of a recent explosion, during which 13 people died and 62 were injured, there was an enchanting sloppiness - 98 containers with explosives were stored in bright sunshine, where they were specifically heated for several days at 40 degrees heat.

In wartime, the most terrible explosion was the famous explosion in Canadian Halifax on December 6, 1917, when the French Mont Blanc transport packed full of explosives collided with the Norwegian Imo ship. The force of the explosion was 2.9 kt of TNT. 2,000 people were killed and another 9,000 were injured. For information - the population of Halifax at that time was 50 thousand people.

Pillar of smoke after the explosion in Halifax.

Interestingly, this city once again had to endure this, when on July 18, 1945 there was a detonation of ammunition at the Bedford arsenal in the vicinity of the city. However, in this case, everything turned out to be several lightly wounded.

However, the explosion in Halifax is far from the deadliest of all non-nuclear explosions in history.

If we talk about a separate explosion, then certainly the explosion of the Turkish arsenal in the Rhodes fortress on April 4, 1856. The Turks used the Orthodox churches located in the palace as warehouses for gunpowder. One fine morning, when the bells of the churches rang, the powder detonated. Killed approximately 4,000 people.

But the worst non-nuclear explosion in terms of consequences was carried out by the British on June 7, 1917 in the hills of Messina, when during the Battle of Paschendel, 22 charges were simultaneously detonated under the positions of the Germans, with a capacity of 9.1 to 43.4 tons of explosives (455 tons in total). The total losses of the Germans amounted to 10 thousand people.

The first truly Big Bang, apparently, occurred on April 4, 1585 during the siege of the Antwerp by the Spaniards. At that time, the Spaniards occupied a large stone bridge at the entrance to the city, which prevented the Dutch (they later became Belgians) getting supplies on the Scheldt. Then the besieged equipped four huge firewalls with a displacement of 800 tons each. Three did not reach the goal, but the last fourth sailed to the bridge, but did not immediately explode. The Spaniards decided to capture him and at that moment the explosives detonated. Up to 800 Castilians died, a small tsunami went up the Scheldt, and a black cloud covered the city. The earth shook noticeably for 35 kilometers from Antwerp, in Ghent.

The explosion in Antwerp. French engraving of 1727.

So here you are, and you are Tianjin, Tianjin ...