it’s about time we had to talk about
just how dangerous these things are
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
scariest nuclear bombs before we begin
we publish new videos every day
so be sure to subscribe for more great
content for this list our focus is not
necessarily on the biggest bombs ever
created but on the bombs that have done
the most damaged harmed the most people
and inspired the most fear we’ve also
decided to rank nuclear bombs including
atomic and hydrogen bombs while
excluding other nuclear weapons like
missiles number 10 Trinity Manhattan
Project it was in a remote location in
New Mexico that the world experienced
its first nuclear explosion eager to try
out their then new design in an effort
to end the second world war the US Army
began assembling the gadget as the bomb
was nicknamed in a ranch house on July
13 1945 they hoisted it onto a 100-foot
firing tower from which they dropped it
at 5:30 a.m. on July 16th the tower
vaporized the desert shook under a
searing blast wave and a mushroom cloud
formed though a simple test it was that
bomb that triggered the nuclear age
which was a period characterized by
suspicion paranoia and fear number nine
b41 also known as the mark 41 this bomb
was called the most efficient weapon
ever built at the time of its creation
when comparing its weight to its yield
or the amount of energy it emits at
detonation in fact with a maximum yield
of 25 megatons this bomb has the ability
to release the same destructive power as
25 million tons of TNT
had it been detonated it would have
produced a fireball almost four miles
wide burned people to the third degree
about 32 miles away and annihilated most
structures within 15 miles although
never used in actual warfare the b41
remains the most powerful nuclear bomb
ever created by the United States number
eight Cherokee operation Red Wing with a
yield of simply 3.8 megatons this bomb
was far from the biggest to be dropped
by the United States at Bikini Atoll in
the Marshall Islands detonated during
the military’s operation Red Wing which
saw seventeen nuclear test discharges in
1956 Cherokee was however the country’s
first hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb to
be delivered and dropped by air
what made this weapon even more
terrifying was the navigation error that
landed it almost four miles off its
target raising the ironic question of
how safe nuclear bomb tests really are
even when performed by trained personnel
number seven Baker operation crossroads
for America’s first deployment of a
nuclear bomb under water the weapon was
detonated at a depth of 90 feet on July
25th 1946
as part of the Baker test somewhere near
bikini at all despite the underwater
detonation the effects of Helen of
bikini were just as destructive the
target naval ship vaporized and a total
of 10 ships were sunk
including a damaged heavy cruiser that
sank five months after the test as a
result of irreparable hull damage
despite plans to test another bomb named
Charlie in the area severe
decontamination problems brought the
project to a halt 16 days after the
blast as the bomb had covered an
unprecedented area with a catastrophic
amount of radiation number 6 store ax
sedan although this nuclear detonation
at Yucca Flats Nevada was supposedly
performed to measure its effectiveness
for mining and other peaceful practical
purposes it didn’t do much more than
caused a lot of damage buried over 600
feet below the earth and exploded on
July 6 1962 the bomb removed 11 million
tons of dirt and created the biggest
man-made crater in the country our
perspective it’s visible from outer
space the bomb caused the greatest radio
nuclide activity our atmosphere had ever
experienced and contaminated more
American civilians with radiation than
any of
nuclear test in history its failure
ultimately helped spur the development
of the 1963 partial nuclear test ban
treaty number five starfish prime
operation fishbowl it was in the midst
of the Cold War that despite a
moratorium on atmospheric tests of
nuclear weapons the Soviet Union and the
United States resumed the testing of
nuclear weapons on July 9th 1962 the
American military detonated a nuclear
warhead some 250 miles over the ground
as part of their operation fishbowl
although scientists had expected an
electromagnetic pulse or EMP after the
explosion the sheer power of the ensuing
EMP was shocking 1/3 of all active
satellites were damaged by the pulse and
about 900 miles away in Hawaii
hundreds of streetlights telephones
alarms and radios blew causing outages
and blackouts number 4 shrimp
Castle Bravo set off on March 1st 1954
this lithium deuteride filled hydrogen
bomb exceeded the military’s
expectations and ended up becoming the
most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever
dropped by the United States to give you
an idea of just how destructive the
shrimp was its blast was about 1,000
times more powerful than the atomic
bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
during the Second World War although a
significant radioactive fallout was
expected due to an error made by
designers the yield of 15 megatons of
TNT much higher than the expected 5 to 6
megatons caused enormous environmental
contamination for years to come
as well as deaths and illness in over
1,000 of the locals number three fat man
it was the second and thankfully last
nuclear weapon ever used in warfare and
it was dropped over the city of Nagasaki
in Japan on August 9th 1945 during the
second world war between 35 and 40
thousand people died instantly during
the explosion while an estimated 80,000
died in total as a result of leukemia
radiation poisoning and burn injuries
the vast majority of these casualties
were civilians and industrial workers
much of the industrial production in the
city took months and even years to
repair but in the end it was just six
days after this bomb was dropped that
Japan announced its surrender number two
little boy its codename sounds innocent
but this bomb was anything but as it was
the first of the only two nuclear
weapons ever used in war and the most
destructive in terms of human casualties
coming less than a month after the
Trinity test little boy was dropped over
the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August
6th 1945 although a less powerful bomb
than its successor with a yield of 15 to
16 kilotons the flat terrain of the city
and the firestorm that ensued ultimately
resulted in more deaths with 66,000
people dying in the initial blast and
tens of thousands more perishing in the
aftermath due to illness though these
two bombs arguably ended the war they
came with an unfathomable cost number
one it’s our bomba some of the most
powerful nuclear detonations in history
have been from the Soviet Union and this
is the biggest of them all detonated
shortly after Nikita Khrushchev’s
promised to show the United States what
they’ve got tsar bomba also nicknamed
Vanya and big Ivan was dropped on
October 30th 1961 north of the Arctic
Circle over Novaya Zemlya
archipelago the yield of the bomb was
over 50 megatons or 50 million tons of
TNT the mushroom cloud grew to a height
of 7 Mount Everest and the blast was so
strong it broke windows 560 miles away
that Tsar Bomba showed more than
anything else the capacity of
humankind’s destructiveness do you agree
with our pics check out these other
great clips from WatchMojo and subscribe
for new videos every day
just how dangerous these things are
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top 10
scariest nuclear bombs before we begin
we publish new videos every day
so be sure to subscribe for more great
content for this list our focus is not
necessarily on the biggest bombs ever
created but on the bombs that have done
the most damaged harmed the most people
and inspired the most fear we’ve also
decided to rank nuclear bombs including
atomic and hydrogen bombs while
excluding other nuclear weapons like
missiles number 10 Trinity Manhattan
Project it was in a remote location in
New Mexico that the world experienced
its first nuclear explosion eager to try
out their then new design in an effort
to end the second world war the US Army
began assembling the gadget as the bomb
was nicknamed in a ranch house on July
13 1945 they hoisted it onto a 100-foot
firing tower from which they dropped it
at 5:30 a.m. on July 16th the tower
vaporized the desert shook under a
searing blast wave and a mushroom cloud
formed though a simple test it was that
bomb that triggered the nuclear age
which was a period characterized by
suspicion paranoia and fear number nine
b41 also known as the mark 41 this bomb
was called the most efficient weapon
ever built at the time of its creation
when comparing its weight to its yield
or the amount of energy it emits at
detonation in fact with a maximum yield
of 25 megatons this bomb has the ability
to release the same destructive power as
25 million tons of TNT
had it been detonated it would have
produced a fireball almost four miles
wide burned people to the third degree
about 32 miles away and annihilated most
structures within 15 miles although
never used in actual warfare the b41
remains the most powerful nuclear bomb
ever created by the United States number
eight Cherokee operation Red Wing with a
yield of simply 3.8 megatons this bomb
was far from the biggest to be dropped
by the United States at Bikini Atoll in
the Marshall Islands detonated during
the military’s operation Red Wing which
saw seventeen nuclear test discharges in
1956 Cherokee was however the country’s
first hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb to
be delivered and dropped by air
what made this weapon even more
terrifying was the navigation error that
landed it almost four miles off its
target raising the ironic question of
how safe nuclear bomb tests really are
even when performed by trained personnel
number seven Baker operation crossroads
for America’s first deployment of a
nuclear bomb under water the weapon was
detonated at a depth of 90 feet on July
25th 1946
as part of the Baker test somewhere near
bikini at all despite the underwater
detonation the effects of Helen of
bikini were just as destructive the
target naval ship vaporized and a total
of 10 ships were sunk
including a damaged heavy cruiser that
sank five months after the test as a
result of irreparable hull damage
despite plans to test another bomb named
Charlie in the area severe
decontamination problems brought the
project to a halt 16 days after the
blast as the bomb had covered an
unprecedented area with a catastrophic
amount of radiation number 6 store ax
sedan although this nuclear detonation
at Yucca Flats Nevada was supposedly
performed to measure its effectiveness
for mining and other peaceful practical
purposes it didn’t do much more than
caused a lot of damage buried over 600
feet below the earth and exploded on
July 6 1962 the bomb removed 11 million
tons of dirt and created the biggest
man-made crater in the country our
perspective it’s visible from outer
space the bomb caused the greatest radio
nuclide activity our atmosphere had ever
experienced and contaminated more
American civilians with radiation than
any of
nuclear test in history its failure
ultimately helped spur the development
of the 1963 partial nuclear test ban
treaty number five starfish prime
operation fishbowl it was in the midst
of the Cold War that despite a
moratorium on atmospheric tests of
nuclear weapons the Soviet Union and the
United States resumed the testing of
nuclear weapons on July 9th 1962 the
American military detonated a nuclear
warhead some 250 miles over the ground
as part of their operation fishbowl
although scientists had expected an
electromagnetic pulse or EMP after the
explosion the sheer power of the ensuing
EMP was shocking 1/3 of all active
satellites were damaged by the pulse and
about 900 miles away in Hawaii
hundreds of streetlights telephones
alarms and radios blew causing outages
and blackouts number 4 shrimp
Castle Bravo set off on March 1st 1954
this lithium deuteride filled hydrogen
bomb exceeded the military’s
expectations and ended up becoming the
most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever
dropped by the United States to give you
an idea of just how destructive the
shrimp was its blast was about 1,000
times more powerful than the atomic
bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
during the Second World War although a
significant radioactive fallout was
expected due to an error made by
designers the yield of 15 megatons of
TNT much higher than the expected 5 to 6
megatons caused enormous environmental
contamination for years to come
as well as deaths and illness in over
1,000 of the locals number three fat man
it was the second and thankfully last
nuclear weapon ever used in warfare and
it was dropped over the city of Nagasaki
in Japan on August 9th 1945 during the
second world war between 35 and 40
thousand people died instantly during
the explosion while an estimated 80,000
died in total as a result of leukemia
radiation poisoning and burn injuries
the vast majority of these casualties
were civilians and industrial workers
much of the industrial production in the
city took months and even years to
repair but in the end it was just six
days after this bomb was dropped that
Japan announced its surrender number two
little boy its codename sounds innocent
but this bomb was anything but as it was
the first of the only two nuclear
weapons ever used in war and the most
destructive in terms of human casualties
coming less than a month after the
Trinity test little boy was dropped over
the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August
6th 1945 although a less powerful bomb
than its successor with a yield of 15 to
16 kilotons the flat terrain of the city
and the firestorm that ensued ultimately
resulted in more deaths with 66,000
people dying in the initial blast and
tens of thousands more perishing in the
aftermath due to illness though these
two bombs arguably ended the war they
came with an unfathomable cost number
one it’s our bomba some of the most
powerful nuclear detonations in history
have been from the Soviet Union and this
is the biggest of them all detonated
shortly after Nikita Khrushchev’s
promised to show the United States what
they’ve got tsar bomba also nicknamed
Vanya and big Ivan was dropped on
October 30th 1961 north of the Arctic
Circle over Novaya Zemlya
archipelago the yield of the bomb was
over 50 megatons or 50 million tons of
TNT the mushroom cloud grew to a height
of 7 Mount Everest and the blast was so
strong it broke windows 560 miles away
that Tsar Bomba showed more than
anything else the capacity of
humankind’s destructiveness do you agree
with our pics check out these other
great clips from WatchMojo and subscribe
for new videos every day
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