One of the most terrifying weapons available to military forces around the world today is the nuclear bomb
No other weapon can cause destruction and damage on such a massive scale, and few images are as terrifying as that of a mushroom cloud
Just how big are the largest nuclear bombs stored around the world?
While the length and weight of the bombs are certainly impressive to consider, the real value in a nuclear bomb lies in its detonation force or “yield,” which is measured in megatons of TNT
Let’s learn more about 10 of the largest nuclear bombs in the world today
The Mark 14 was the first solid fuel hydrogen bomb, and was an experimental design
A mere five units were produced, several of which were detonated in the Castle Union test
By the time two years had passed since their creation, the last remaining Mk 14s were recycled into Mk 17s
The detonation device Mark 14 was nicknamed the “alarm clock” However, it was unrelated to the earlier design of the same name proposed by theoretical physicist Edward Teller
Although often called the Mark 16, this bomb is more formally known as the TX-16/EC-16, due to the fact that it was only built in experimental/emergency capability versions
The TX-16 was the only deployed thermonuclear bomb that used a cryogenic liquid deuterium fusion fuel
This bomb was eventually retired and replaced by solid-fueled thermonuclear weapons
The TX-16 was simply an armed improvement of the famous “Ivy Mike” design, which used the same fusion fuel
Classified as a high-yield bunker buster thermonuclear weapon, the B53 was designed with the power to destroy entire cities and unearth bunkers (hence its nickname)
The B53 was the oldest and among the longest-lived nuclear weapons deployed by the United States
Length: 150 inches
A more advanced version of the earlier Mark 21 nuclear bomb, the extremely powerful Mark 36 was built to give aircraft better time to reach a safe distance from the explosion before detonation
These bombs delivered such a blast that they were designed with two parachutes to slow their movement
The Mk 21s on which these bombs were based were developed and improved directly after the Castle Bravo detonation tests
“The Sausage” Ivy Mike H-Bomb
Source: flickrcom
The Ivy Mike detonation was the first full test of a Teller-Ulam staged fusion device
The device that detonated during the Ivy Mike test was nicknamed “The Sausage”, and was the first real hydrogen bomb ever tested
The size and efficiency level of The Sausage meant that its main purpose was to serve as a proof of concept, rather than actually being used as a deliverable weapon
At the time, when Ivy Mike was detonated in the Marshall Islands, it broke the record for the largest explosion to that point
This American thermonuclear bomb was designed based on the results of the Castle Yankee test
Castle Yankee was the third thermonuclear bomb test conducted in the United States
During that time, it also produced the second highest yield in the nation
The parachute included in the design of the Mk 24 had a diameter of 64 feet
One of the first two mass-produced hydrogen bombs deployed in the United States, the Mark 17 was also the first deliverable thermonuclear weapon that could be dropped from an aircraft
The Mk 17 is the heaviest thermonuclear weapon that is built in the United States
The bombs were so heavy that the pilots who delivered them reported feeling that the planes were entering the atmosphere immediately after delivery
TX-21 “Shrimp” (Castle Bravo)
The Mk 21 nuclear gravity bomb was made in the United States, and was based on the TX-21 “Shrimp” prototype that was used during a test detonation called Castle Bravo
The detonation of Mk 21 was the largest American explosion that resulted
The income from Kastiel Bravo turned out to be much higher than expected due to a series of unforeseen reactions
As a result, the eastern part of Bikini Atoll ended up radioactively contaminated
B41 nuclear bomb
B41 nuclear bomb
B41 nuclear bomb
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
Length: 12 feet 4 inches
This impressive bomb was the only three-stage thermonuclear weapon fielded by the United States, as well as the most powerful nuclear bomb ever developed in the nation
It is also considered the most powerful bomb for its size in the world, and overwhelms the largest bomb in the world in terms of yield-to-weight ratio
The B41 was the most efficient bomb of its time
The B41 nuclear bomb can offer two different yields, depending on how it is fired
Tsar Bomba (RDS-220 hydrogen bomb)
Maximum yield: 50Mt
Maximum yield: 50Mt
Maximum yield: 50Mt
Maximum yield: 50Mt
Maximum yield: 50Mt
Length: 26 feet
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
Source: wikimediaorg
The Tsar Bomba, or RDS-220 hydrogen bomb, is the largest nuclear bomb in the world today
This astonishing thermonuclear bomb was created by the USSR with the aim of creating the largest nuclear weapon in the world, and it still holds the record for the most powerful explosive ever detonated
The Tsar Bomba in its original form would have produced too much fallout to be safe for testing
The design was then modified before the bomb was detonated on the deserted island of Novaya Zemlya
Since the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, there have been more than 2,051 other nuclear weapons tests around the world
No other force displays the absolute destructive power that humanity has unleashed in the way that nuclear weapons have
And the weapons became more powerful rapidly in the decade after that first test
The device tested in 1945 had a yield of 20 kilotons, meaning it had the explosive power of 20,000 tons of TNT Within 20 years, the US and the USSR tested nuclear weapons larger than 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of TNT
For scale, these weapons were at least 500 times as powerful as the first atomic bomb Los Alamos National LaboratoryTo put the magnitude of the largest nuclear explosions in history to scale, we used Alex Wellerstein’s Nukemap, a tool for visualizing the terrifying real-world impact of a nuclear explosion In the following maps, the first ring of the explosion the fireball, followed by the radiation radius In the pink radius, almost all buildings are demolished and deaths occur for 100 percent
In the gray radius, stronger buildings would withstand the blast, but injuries are almost universal
In the orange beam, people with exposed skin would suffer third-degree burns, and combustible materials would catch fire, leading to possible firestorms
Soviet Tests #158 and #168Alex Wellerstein/NukemapOn August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month apart, the USSR conducted nuclear tests #158 and #168 the north of Russia by the Arctic Ocean
No film or photos of the tests have been released, but both tests involved the use of 10-megaton atomic bombs miles
Ivy MikeCTBTOOn November 1, 1952, the US tested Ivy Mike over the Marshall Islands
Ivy Mike was the world’s first hydrogen bomb and had a yield of 104 megatons, making it 700 times as powerful as the first atomic bomb
Ivy Mike’s detonation was so powerful that it vaporized Elugelab Island where it was detonated, leaving a 164-foot deep crater in its place
The mushroom cloud from the explosion traveled 30 kilometers into the atmosphere
9 Castle RomeoUS Department of EnergyRomeo was the second US nuclear detonation of the Castle Series of tests, which was conducted in 1954
All detonations took place over Bikini Atoll
Castle Romeo was the third most powerful test of the series and had a yield of 11 megatons
Romeo was the first device to be tested on a barge over open water rather than on a reef, as the US quickly ran up islands on which it could test nuclear weapons
Soviet test #123Alex Wellerstein/NukemapOn October 23, 1961, the Soviets conducted nuclear test #123 over Nova Zemlya
Test #123 used a 125 megaton nuclear bomb A bomb of this size would incinerate everything within 211 square miles while causing third-degree burns in an area of 1,309 square miles
No footage or photos of this nuclear test have been released
7 Castle Yankeebroubies/YouTubeCastle Yankee, the second strongest test of the Castle series, was conducted on May 4, 1954
The bomb was 135 megatons Four days later, its fallout reached Mexico City, about 7,100 kilometers away
6 Castle Bravo US Department of Energy Castle Bravo, detonated on February 28, 1954, was the first of the Castle series of tests and the largest US nuclear blast of all time
Bravo was expected to be a 6-megaton explosion
Instead, the bomb produced a 15-megaton fission blast
His mushroom cloud reached 114,000 feet in the air The US military’s miscalculation of the size of the test resulted in the irradiation of approximately 665 Marshall Islanders and the death by radiation poisoning of a Japanese fisherman who was 80 kilometers away from the detonation site
Soviet Tests #173, #174, and #147Alex Wellerstein/Nukemap From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR conducted a series of nuclear tests over Nova Zemlya
Tests #173, #174 and #147 all stand out as the fifth-, fourth- and third-most powerful nuclear explosions in history
A bomb of this power would incinerate everything within 3 square miles No footage or photos of these nuclear tests have been released
2 Soviet test #219Alex Wellerstein/NukemapOn December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted Test #219 over Nova Zemlya
The bomb had a yield of 242 megatons A bomb of this strength would incinerate everything within 358 square miles while causing third-degree burns in an area up to 2,250 square miles
There are no released photos or video of this explosion1
The Tsar Bombaserasvictorias/YouTubeOn October 30, 1961, the USSR detonated the largest nuclear weapon ever tested and created the largest man-made explosion in history according to Slate The flash of light from the blast was visible up to 620 kilometers away
The Tsar Bomba, as the test eventually became known, had a yield between 50 and 58 megatons, twice the size of the second largest nuclear explosion A bomb of this size would create a fireball 64 square kilometers in size and could give people third-degree burns within 4,080 square miles of the bomb’s epicenter
The first atomic bombNukeMapThe first atomic bomb was a fraction of the size of the Tsar Bomba, but it was still an explosion of almost unimaginable size According to the NukeMap, a weapon with a yield of 20 kilotons produces a fireball with a radius of 260 meters, making its total width is the size of 5 football fields It would spew lethal radiation over an area 7 kilometers wide, and would produce third-degree burns in an area more than 12 kilometers wide that size would kill about 150,000 people and produce fallout stretching all the way to central Connecticut, according to the NukeMap The first atomic bomb was small by nuclear weapons standards