Da Bomb

First, I want to recommend to you Susan Kitchen's excellent series of posts on the events surrounding the first three atomic bomb explosions (Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki).  She's "blogging like it was 1945," which really brings history to life.  I eagerly await RSS notification that she's added yet another fascinating post to the series.

Of course, my subconscious has other things in mind...

Last night, I dreamed that an atomic bomb detonated just over the ridge south of my house.  I was standing on the back deck of my house,  saw a bright red flash against the clouds (nothing as intense as the burst of white light described by people who've actually seen an atomic bomb explosion),  and basically realized that I was dead in that instant.  And then I woke up.

Sometimes with a nightmare, you wake up scared.  This was different.  Calm.  I was struck by the inescapability of the situation.  You'd be dead probably before you knew it, or with just enough time to say, "Oh, shit."  Not even enough time for adrenalin-induced panic to set in.

As I lay there in the dark, I realized that not only did I have to blog about Susan's historical posts, but also this handy High-Yield Detonation Effects Simulator, an interesting application of Google Maps technology (more details from the author, appropriately titled "Mapping Doomsday").  The simulator defaults to the effects of a 100 kiloton (KT) bomb.  Note that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about 20 KT, and current weapons are as large as 20,000 KT (20 Megatons).

By the way, only a fraction of the 132 pounds of uranium in the Hiroshima bomb was converted to energy before the chain reaction blew it apart (detail courtesy of Susan's research).  Susan is most eloquent:

How much uranium splits apart (and how much energy is released) before the not-quite-gallon-sized jug of uranium can no longer contain the burst of ever-growing energy?

One and a half pounds. (700 grams). The weight of six sticks of butter. But not the size of six sticks, no. One and a half pounds of uranium measures just over two-and-a-half tablespoons.

Two-and-a-half-tablespoons of splitting uranium contains enough energy to unleash hell on earth.

I don't think anyone can really imagine the devastation of a single bomb.  The eye-witness descriptions of the dead, the dying, and the destruction at Hiroshima are horrific.  And that was a little one.

Thank you, Susan.

Comments

[Susan Kitchens]

You're welcome.. and thank YOU for this post, Mike. I fell off the blog wagon this last week, today I'm trying climb back on and finish up the story. Reading a post like this helps. :)

Glad you liked what I said about the volume of split U235. When I found out the amount, I. was. completely. floored. It leads to all sorts of thoughts about the energy within all things, and whatever it is that holds atoms together. That's about all I can do to take a stab at it before my brain starts hurting. Fortunately (or not) I've many other tasks to set my brain to (like the events of Aug. 7 and following) in order to avoid that particular line of thought about Atomic Energy and The Nature Of All Things. Besides, I avoided all that hard science stuff in school anyhow.