Bikini Atoll is just a normal, small, island-like landform, right? Wrong! Bikini Atoll was where one of the most dangerous hydrogen bombs the US has ever created was tested. Today, 60 years after it was tested, the islands are still deserted due to radiation! I'm going to tell you what happened there, how its like now, and talk a bit about the damage. What happened there?
Early in the morning on March 1, 1954, a hydrogen bomb named Bravo was detonated on the surface of a reef on the edge of Bikini Atoll. The area was illuminated by a huge and expanding flash of light. A fireball of heat that measured into the millions of degrees shot skyward at a rate of 300 miles an hour. In mere minutes the monstrous cloud, filled with nuclear debris, shot up more than 20 miles and generated winds hundreds of miles per hour. These fiery winds blasted the surrounding islands and stripped the trees bare. …show more content…
They recorded a steady increase in radiation levels that became so high that all men were ordered below decks and all hatches and watertight doors were sealed. Millions of tons of sand, coral, plant and sea life from Bikini's reef, three islands near it, and the surrounding lagoon waters were sent high into the air by the blast. An hour and a half after the explosion, 23 fishermen aboard the Japanese fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon, watched in awe as a "gritty white ash" began to fall on them. The men aboard the ship were oblivious to the fact that the ash was the fallout from the hydrogen bomb. Shortly after being exposed to the fallout their skin began to itch and they experienced harsh side effects. One of the men