Nuclear explosions for nuclear power plants and atomic weapons of mass destruction are among the terrifying events to have happened in the history of men. Unfortunately, there have been several massive explosions in the last century, and among the most well-known is the Tsar Bomba test that happened in 1961.
Tsar Bomba, or Big Ivan, holds the record for the most powerful man-made explosion.
The King of the Bombs
Tsar Bomba, also known as Big Ivan, translates to "King of the Bombs" as per Britannica, and true to its name, it holds the biggest nuclear explosion to happen in the history of men.
The Tsar Bomba was a Soviet thermonuclear bomb that the nation has detonated during a test at Novaya Zemlya, an island in the Arctic Ocean, on Oct. 30, 1961, and now it holds the record for the most powerful human-made explosion.
According to the National Interest, the video footage from the said explosion was previously classified, but in 2020, a video of a documentary pertaining to the Tsar Bomba has been uploaded on a YouTube channel after the footage was declassified.
Now, everyone who has access to the internet could finally see how the biggest nuclear explosion happened and how terrifying it was.
As of writing, the said video has already been viewed nearly 5.2 million times.
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Delivering the Tsar Bomba
The video shows both the initial preparation for Big Ivan, which includes its assembly, followed by the bomb's eventual explosion over the Arctic island in Russia's far north.
The massive atomic bomb weighed around 60,000 pounds or over 27,000 kilograms for the record and was over six feet in diameter. It was carried by a modified Tu-95 bomber that was customized specifically for the Tsar Bomba.
The aircraft had its fuel tank removed to help increase its payload capacity, while its bomb bay doors were removed and replaced with more robust and larger doors.
Furthermore, the massive bomb was equipped with a parachute for the safety of the pilot.
The parachute enabled the big bomb to descend slowly before exploding to give more time for the crew to fly away to safety, with both the Tu-95 bomber and the observation plane painted in an anti-flash white to try and minimize the damages to the airframe from the bright flash that was emitted from the nuclear explosion.
The Effects of the Biggest Nuclear Explosion
For those who are unaware, besides the intense heat and damage from nuclear explosions, witnesses of these terrifying events described via a video from The New York Times stating that they were asked to cover their eyes with their arms and turn back from the explosion, but despite that, they were still able to see a flash of blinding light, enabling them to see the bones within their arms.
Despite the preventive methods, the pilots and crew of the aircraft that delivered Tsar Bomba and observed it was only given a 50-50 chance of survival, but fortunately, they have survived.
When it exploded, Big Ivan emitted a mushroom cloud, with a column of smoke rising nearly 40 miles into the sky, and Richter scales around the world had registered a 5.0 earthquake in the epicenter of the explosion.
Soldiers that were as far away as Norway were able to see the flash from the explosion and radioactive fallout was widespread.
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
