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On 30 October 1961, over the island of Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Sea, Soviet scientists detonated the most powerful weapon ever constructed by mankind. The device was code-named “Ivan,” and it was a multi-stage hydrogen bomb which was built in only fifteen weeks by engineers in the USSR, using off-the-shelf nuclear weapon components.
It was intended as a display of Soviet superiority during a period of grave tension between the USSR and the United States. The Russians had erected the Berlin wall only two months earlier, and they had just ended a shaky, three-year moratorium on atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. Before Ivan, the largest explosion the world had seen was an incredible 15 megatons, an event which caused a mushroom cloud five kilometers across. Ivan’s explosion was over three times more powerful, despite the fact that the device was deliberately prevented from operating to its full potential.
The completed weapon weighed 27 metric tons, and though it was technically “aircraft-deliverable,” it was too large to fit inside the bomb bay of the largest soviet bomber of that era, the Tu-95. Consequently, a Tu-95 was specially modified for the task, including the removal of the bomb bay doors to allow the bomb to protrude from the plane, and a coating of a special reflective paint to minimize the heat damage it would sustain from the fireball. Ivan was also attached to a parachute to prevent it from descending too rapidly, thereby giving the bomber adequate time to get out of range of the blast.
Because the project had been rushed, much of the mathematical analysis was skipped, and estimations were used instead. This led to uncertainties about the system performance, and last-minute design modifications. Doubts and uncertainties notwithstanding, on October 30, 1961 the Tu-95 dropped Ivan from an altitude of 34,500 feet over the Mityushikha Bay Nuclear Testing Range at Novaya Zemlya. The weapon’s on-board barometric sensors detonated the bomb at approximately 13,000 feet at 11:32am.
Despite the cloudy weather, the flash of light was visible as far as 1,000 kilometers distant, though the sound of the blast would not reach that far for forty-nine minutes, in the form of an indistinct, heavy blow. The giant fireball reached from ground-level to about 34,000 feet into the air, violently releasing 3800 times more explosive energy than the Hiroshima bomb—equivalent to fifty million metric tons of TNT. One hundred kilometers from ground zero the heat would have inflicted third degree burns. Atmospheric focusing produced areas of destruction hundreds of kilometers from ground zero, including wooden structures which were completely destroyed, and some shattered windows in Finland. The explosion’s atmospheric shockwave traveled around the Earth three times before it dissipated.
The mushroom cloud which followed the blast was enormous in scale. It stretched sixty kilometers into the sky, and had a diameter of about forty kilometers. Ionization from the explosion disrupted radio communications for the better part of an hour.
Some time after the explosion, a team was dispatched to ground zero to take photographs. One witness reported: “The ground surface of the island has been leveled, swept and licked so that it looks like a skating rink. The same goes for rocks. The snow has melted and their sides and edges are shiny. There is not a trace of unevenness in the ground… Everything in this area has been swept clean, scoured, melted and blown away.” Analysis of the explosion showed that the area of complete destruction had a radius of twenty-five kilometers from ground zero.
Naturally, the United States was outraged, and responded by rattling its nuclear saber in return. The U.S. soon followed suit with an extensive series of nuclear weapons tests.
Ivan—sometimes referred to as “Tsar Bomba” or “King of Bombs”—was originally designed to yield a 100 megaton explosion, but the soviets decided that such a blast would create too great a risk of nuclear fallout, and an almost certain chance that the release plane would be unable to reach safety before detonation. Prior to testing, the engineers replaced a portion of the radioactive uranium with a lead tamper, cutting its explosive potential in half, to a “mere” 50 megatons. Later analysis showed that the fallout from a 100 megaton detonation would have resulted in lethal levels of radioactive fallout over an enormous area.
Even at half strength, Ivan was so powerful that it was completely impractical. Much of the explosion’s energy radiated upwards into space, and that which didn’t was so excessive that using the device on any populated targets world would have resulted in adverse effects on Russian interests. It served as nothing more than a show of force, and in that respect, it served its purpose well. Thankfully, no weapon with the massive destructive power of Tsar Bomba has been built since.
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::whistles::
That’ll end a war…and a continent.
-L.
good thing they didn’t have to use one of those….
heres a link to video footage up the explosion:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2046393742348211186
Hot damn.
w4rrior said: “good thing they didn’t have to use one of those….
heres a link to video footage up the explosion:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2046393742348211186“
Ooops, forgot to say thanks for that. Great video.
Holy f***ing sh*t! That’s just too much bang for your buck.
Crazy.. wild.. deranged times, the US was just as busy with thinking this thing up!
http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html
Call me a hippy, but what about all the animal and plant life they destroyed in that 110 miles blast zone?
I’d love to see some interactive maps that display a visual reference for the effects of these bombs. Reading, “The flash of light was visible as far as 1,000 kilometers…” is one thing, but seeing a physical reference is another. You’d have to drive almost ten hours to reach the radius of that circle, which helps put that number into perspective. I think most people have a heavily distorted idea on the destructive details of atomic weapons because “megaton” just doesn’t mean much to most people. Anyone with some free time and Google Maps?
wileybot said: “Crazy.. wild.. deranged times, the US was just as busy with thinking this thing up!
http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html“
That was Damn Interesting wileybot
wileybot said: “Crazy.. wild.. deranged times, the US was just as busy with thinking this thing up!
http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html“
Heh, we had an article on that thing last September:
The Little Crowbar That Could
Furnace said: “Anyone with some free time and Google Maps?”
Well, I’m a little short on the free time, but here’s a relevant Google Map. The island over which Ivan was exploded is the long, skinny island near the center. You can see its distance from Finland, where the flash of light was visible and windows were borken.
If you zoom in on the island, you can see a relatively smooth circular area scrubbed of vegetation. This is probably the blast site. I was going to include that in the article, but I wasn’t able to verify that this is the site with 100% certainty. It is the island Novaya Zemlya, though, so the blast occurred somewhere over it.
Alan Bellows said: “Heh, we had an article on that thing last September:
The Little Crowbar That Could”
That was before I found your site, no wonder I found it to be Damn Interesting….
MeasureMan said: “That was before I found your site, no wonder I found it to be Damn Interesting….”
me too! glad to be here now.
as far as an idea to get the effect of these monsters… and it only goes up to 4 megatons! ithave….http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=367
Furnace said: “I’d love to see some interactive maps that display a visual reference for the effects of these bombs…”
Eric Meyer can help you out with HYDESim. (I’ve set it to a 50000 KT explosion over New York, since the article indicates that the blast was 50 Megatons)
Cheers from a fellow Dreamhoster!
mikepurvis said: “Eric Meyer can help you out with HYDESim. (I’ve set it to a 50000 KT explosion over New York, since the article indicates that the blast was 50 Megatons)”
The Federation of American Scientists also has a “Nuclear Weapon Effects Calculator,” which they had previously called their “Bomb a City Calculator.” Can’t imagine why they changed the name! It’s not based on gMaps, but they have more cities and allow you to select if you want the weapon delivered by car or aircraft; however, 4 Megatons is the largest yield available (which should be more than enough for anyone to obliterate a city).
Just to put this in perspective, our ICBM’s (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) have an approimate yield of 40 billion lbs. of TNT. This superweapon has a yield of 10 TRILLION LBS.
Love the smell of burnt everything in the morning! Living near an old air-force base that may have had 250 nuclear(125 drop and 125 Tomahawks)I’ve read. Fun to ride and explore the alert-pad and bunkers. Peace thru superior fire-power!
I’m reminded of the flag of Bikini Atoll (which is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands), which has 23 stars which represent the islands of the atoll, and three black stars seperated from the rest, which represent the three islands which were vapourized by the Castle Bravo shot (15 Mt):
http://www.bikiniatoll.com/anthem.html
Dave
They showed the footage of the bomb being made and exploded in Trinity and Beyond. Its a movie about the nuclear history of the world. D.I. has an article on the movie. Just search “nuclear weapons” and it should be on the first page. The title is pretty obvious.
WHY WHY USSR RUSSIA COPY STEAL COPY STEAL FROM AMERICA FIRST OWN A-BOMB,,,
USSR RUSSIA IS VERY DECEIVE, CHEAT, LIAR, EVIL, JEALOUS, ALL THE TIME,,,
USSR RUSSIA IS VERY LOW LIFE, LEARN NOTHING, EVIL EMPIRE COUNTY,,,
A say, no need S said: “WHY WHY USSR RUSSIA COPY STEAL COPY STEAL FROM AMERICA FIRST OWN A-BOMB,,,
USSR RUSSIA IS VERY DECEIVE, CHEAT, LIAR, EVIL, JEALOUS, ALL THE TIME,,,
USSR RUSSIA IS VERY LOW LIFE, LEARN NOTHING, EVIL EMPIRE COUNTY,,,”
1. USSR built its own nuclear weapons
2. You are a hateful little person. Ever tried looking beyond propaganda – or is that beyond your mental capacity?
3. Where are YOU from? I’m sure you’re not from US – because if you were from THAT “deceptive empire country” then I’m sure you wouldn’t be saying these things, right?
4. Learn some English – might come in useful. And practice turning off caps
EuGenus said: “1. USSR built its own nuclear weapons
2. You are a hateful little person. Ever tried looking beyond propaganda – or is that beyond your mental capacity?
3. Where are YOU from? I’m sure you’re not from US – because if you were from THAT “deceptive empire country” then I’m sure you wouldn’t be saying these things, right?
4. Learn some English – might come in useful. And practice turning off caps”
I don’t know why, but I feel there is an eerie link between A say, no need S and one of these guys groupies (Call it an uneducated hunch) …
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2514321&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
I agree with you EuGenus!
DI article, Alan, thanks for scareing the holy crap out of us once again! ;)
Querl said: “Call me a hippy, but what about all the animal and plant life they destroyed in that 110 miles blast zone?”
i was thinking the exact same thing
…so, how many more ways can scientists (and governments) come up with to destroy life on this planet? You never hear of anyone testing bombs or other destructive devices, over, say the Pentagon? …or other seats of government or military administrative offices? That by itself, would do the world a GREAT FAVOR!
Alan Bellows said: “…The island over which Ivan was exploded is the long, skinny island near the center. You can see its distance from Finland, where the flash of light was visible and windows were borken.
If you zoom in on the island, you can see a relatively smooth circular area scrubbed of vegetation. This is probably the blast site. I was going to include that in the article, but I wasn’t able to verify that this is the site with 100% certainty. It is the island Novaya Zemlya, though, so the blast occurred somewhere over it.”
According to your article…”The weapon’s on-board barometric sensors detonated the bomb at approximately 13,000 feet at 11:32am.” From 2.5 miles up, I wouldn’t think you’d find a bomb crater on the island. Try, for a moment, to imagine what would have happened if this bomb would have detonated on the ground? …with regards to how far away it would have been felt and the number of times the shockwaves would travel around the globe? Such forces travel farther thru solids than liquids or gases.
Still….DI! Thanks Allan. Hopefully persons of power will find these articles and think twice before repeating or trying to play a game of “one-up-man-ship”!
To the governments and politicians of this country…there’s got to be something better to do with my hard earned tax dollars…find it!
In defense of the crazy person, the USSR had plenty of spies in our nuclear program and stole a lot of data and theory regarding it. Sure they probably could’ve done it themselves, but it would have taken them a while longer.
And wait, the USSR wasn’t evil? Or did I completely misinterpret what you said, EuGenius?
slappykincaid said: “Just to put this in perspective, our ICBM’s (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) have an approimate yield of 40 billion lbs. of TNT. This superweapon has a yield of 10 TRILLION LBS.”
ICBM warheads tend to be much, much smaller than this. The only ICBM that the United States currently has is the Minuteman, which can hold either a 170 kiloton or a 350 kiloton warhead. To put this in perspective, this is 150 or 300 times smaller than the Ivan described in the DI article, and 130,000 times smaller than your 40 billion claim. Warheads tended to get much smaller after the 60’s -accuracy was better and the “mine’s bigger than your’s” game started to seem pretty pointless.
The Minuteman carries 3 warheads at a time, so multiply the numbers by 3 to get total yield. The US has 500 Minuteman, so maximum destruction from ICBMs is 3*500*(350+170)/2 kt = 390 megatons, assuming 1/2 the warheads are the larger type. Boy this is depressing…
We have a world map under a clear vinyl tablecloth on our kitchen table, and Novaya Zemlya (how do you pronounce that?) is one of many extreme north islands that has often caught my eye. Thanks for some great info on the place — I’ll have to share it with my kids at dinner tonight.
It’s a good sized island, but given that some parts are inhabited it seems like a colossally bad idea to test a bomb there. But then again, is there any good place to test something like that? I shudder to think what might have happened if that bomb had detonated closer to the ground.
The line that floored me; “Because the project had been rushed, much of the mathematical analysis was skipped, and estimations were used instead.” Great; not only were they messing with something bigger & badder than anything before or since, but they were in such a hurry to be FIRST that they totally skipped calculating the bomb’s destructive potential and instead went with guestimates. Bureaucrats. It’s a wonder any of us survived that one.
just_dave said: “…It’s a wonder any of us survived that one.”
The estimations are not really a big deal. It’s much more likely that the estimations would have caused a lower than predicted explosion since you are not completely optimizing the design. Even if the explosion somehow ended up larger, it could not have been much larger because there’s only so much boom you can get out of a pile of uranium.
just_dave said: “We have a world map under a clear vinyl tablecloth on our kitchen table, and Novaya Zemlya (how do you pronounce that?) is one of many extreme north islands that has often caught my eye.
Novaya Zemlya is a bit difficult to pronounce is you’ve not had practice with Slavic languages, and I’ve had only a little exposure, but try this: NO-vah-yah zem-LYAH. The “-lya” part is only one syllable, which makes it more difficult for Western tongues. (Think about the sounds of the cheer “Booyah!” Now imagine that it’s “Boolyah!” instead; now leave off the “boo” part and you’ll have a good approximation of the Russian “-lya” syllable.)
The name means New Land, presumably meaning “newly discovered land” once upon a time, as with “Newfoundland”.
just_dave said: “We have a world map under a clear vinyl tablecloth on our kitchen table, and Novaya Zemlya (how do you pronounce that?) is one of many extreme north islands that has often caught my eye. “
That reminds me of another goddamnintresting artical on the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon…really intresting….
I’m curious whether US had or have that kind of bomns
Now we know who really started global warming.
ilyuxa said: “I’m curious whether US had or have that kind of bomns”
Maybe we do and maybe we don’t. The only time you’ll know is when its used.
Querl said: “Call me a hippy, but what about all the animal and plant life they destroyed in that 110 miles blast zone?”
Millions, possibly billions of animals were probably killed in all the world’s nuclear explosions. Governments are willing to risk plant and animal life to protect themselves.
another viewpoint said: “…so, how many more ways can scientists (and governments) come up with to destroy life on this planet? You never hear of anyone testing bombs or other destructive devices, over, say the Pentagon? …or other seats of government or military administrative offices? That by itself, would do the world a GREAT FAVOR!
If you zoom in on the island, you can see a relatively smooth circular area scrubbed of vegetation. This is probably the blast site. I was going to include that in the article, but I wasn’t able to verify that this is the site with 100% certainty. It is the island Novaya Zemlya, though, so the blast occurred somewhere over it.”
According to your article…”The weapon’s on-board barometric sensors detonated the bomb at approximately 13,000 feet at 11:32am.” From 2.5 miles up, I wouldn’t think you’d find a bomb crater on the island. Try, for a moment, to imagine what would have happened if this bomb would have detonated on the ground? …with regards to how far away it would have been felt and the number of times the shockwaves would travel around the globe? Such forces travel farther thru solids than liquids or gases.
Still….DI! Thanks Allan. Hopefully persons of power will find these articles and think twice before repeating or trying to play a game of “one-up-man-ship”!
To the governments and politicians of this country…there’s got to be something better to do with my hard earned tax dollars…find it!”
I’m not sure about this, but didn’t we learn from Hiroshima that detonating a bomb above the target will cause much more damage than one detonated on the ground?
Actually I am pretty sure we learned that.
If they did a ground detonation with this thing, would it be sufficient to crack the earth’s crust?
I don’t think so. Ivy Mike only produced a crater of a couple hundred feet deep. The crust is several miles thick and resistent to heat and stress. I’m by no means an expert in geology so I couldn’t say for sure but logically I would say no.
Hippies and Communists all. Thank goodness for real men who envision nukular powered flying machines, pooping radioactivity all over the god-less heathenry like so much rabbit doo.
Also, pies, not the earth, have a tasty crust. The earth is made up of dirt and rock and as I clearly stated before, rabbit doo. Detonating a huge bomb would not “cook” a tasty morsel for you to then eat, having smoked so much ganja, Hippie. I believe it was Archimedes who said: Hippies suck. They say they want to save the world, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.
100 megaton would have been cooler…
I remember hearing of a “doomsday” bomb that was envisioned by the Soviets in the 1960s that was to be on a ship, actually using all of the ships capacity for fissonable material and large enough to ensure a nuclear winter all by itself, but was nixed by Kruschev.
Anyone else hear about this?
To #37,
NO it would not crack the planet. But . . . several along a major fault line . . .that is too horrible to think about. Russia did no worse than we did in regards to testing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely opposed to N-weapons, of any kind and size. To anyone breathing a sigh of relief, or seeing these tests as some foolish excersise of a bygone era, think again. The threat and capability is STILL with us. Today it’s just downplayed, like it was in the past.
TO EVERYONE, research every article and follow every link of the nuclear weapons testings, not only will you be appalled at what was done and covered up (start Operation Crossroads), but will see the current situation and threat.
http://www.stonemarr.com
I think it would be cool to blow up something really big, like the moon! But maybe just blow up half of it. I mean there are nuclear capabilities out there to create a bomb that will blow up the entire earth, might as well just blow up the moon so we can all still live! Just kidding, that’s sick.
One other VERY interesting tibit. Although in this instance the Russian Scientists weren’t exactly sure what would happen, but the US was even worse. During Trinity they (Oppie and the boys) had a bet going on. They bet whether or not the bomb would even explode and if it did, whether or not the chain reaction would continue and envelope the entire world. Oppie lost the bet by the way, a whole dollar.
To another viewpoint #24:
Yeah, if only the politicians/terrorists would settle for virtual bombs, nature and everyone in it would be a lot safer. For everyone who can’t keep their finger off the trigger I suggest they try http://www.come-bomb.com – It allows you to place virtual bombs anywhere in the world. A bit crazy, but also safer than “Ivan”.
Uh. I did think about it, and I don’t see what should be more horrible about detonating them along fault lines than at any random point.
The bad thing about detonating a nuke on the ground is the increased fallout of all the irradiated stuff that is thrown into the atmosphere.
IF a nuke detonated at a fault line really managed to “dislodge” the tectonic plates. The absolute worst that could happen would be an earthquake that would have happened sooner or later anyway. In fact if it were possible, it might be a good thing to cause such quakes regularly so that the tension cannot build up for a really large earthquake. Better not use nukes though…
(Sorry too all geologists who read this. This is really unscientific.)
Oh, and to those who wanted to see the blast site:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=73.4,54.9&spn=0.3,0.3&t=k&q=73.4,54.9
Where is this shelf full of nuclear weapon parts?
Very cool Wiley
lol you got that right
***************************************************************************************************
ME*Shit i gotta meet my girlfrinds parents tonight*
NEWS *5 minutes later oh well some russian people just blew up a continet*
ME *well aint that a stroke of luck*
ME *grabs phone calls girlfriend *ya my parents were on that island so i cant meet ur parents tonight srry bye*
ME *Yes!!!!yes !!!yes !!!!yes!!! hmmmmmm that would look bad out of context*
NEWS *millions of lives were lost*
ME *Time for a bottel of shampane to celebrate not having to meet GF parents*
***************************************************************************************************
REPOST: but i do agree if any country were to make another bomb like Ivan then we would have a nuclear war on our hands just cause they said any mroe and it would cause radiation problems thats even more lives lost its scary to think that. especially since it was so long ago less technology and stuff but now these days u get a president to tell 20000 (Exageration) smart scientist and stuff to make another and were all screwed (even thou im sure one of the countrys all ready has one stronger than Ivan) due to all country not trusting eachother. all countrys were spose to get rid of nuclear weapons but 99% of the countrys kept their nukes and to this day they work on making them more destructive (ManKind is gonna casue its own appocalypes before anything else does) do you agree let me know
lol you got that right
***************************************************************************************************
ME*Shit i gotta meet my girlfrinds parents tonight*
NEWS *5 minutes later oh well some russian people just blew up a continet*
ME *well aint that a stroke of luck*
ME *grabs phone calls girlfriend *ya my parents were on that island so i cant meet ur parents tonight srry bye*
ME *Yes!!!!yes !!!yes !!!!yes!!! hmmmmmm that would look bad out of context*
NEWS *millions of lives were lost*
ME *Time for a bottel of shampane to celebrate not having to meet GF parents*
***************************************************************************************************
@Querl….What animal and plant life? lol
One lizard survived the blast and gave birth to a baby lizard which turned into Godzilla, hidden in the ocean and is going to destroy Russia 100 years later…
The crate site now shows up on Google Maps, along with amusingly tongue-in-cheek business reviews.
https://plus.google.com/115760670562750255058/about?hl=en
I also want to know where one would find a shelf containing stock nuclear weapons components.
wow… i hope they never use it holy crap…
these guys are crazy
Yeah well it’ll almost wipe out our entire nation
I have two questions:
1. Can you imagine what weapons both countries have today?
2. Are we absolutely positive that we are more technologically advanced than the Russians or other countries?
Perhaps other countries are now focusing on engineering viruses to destroy their enemies.
Someday in the not-too-distant future, no one who reads these words will have any idea to what I am referring with searching the Internet.
It seems that I was right. It might be that China engineered that virus.
Also, the second sentence in my post above should have had “…to what I am referring without…”
I have become convinced that Russia is smarter and more technologically advanced than we are. I hope that I am wrong.
Minor correction – Novaya Zemlya is not an island but a group of islands (archipelago). The two main islands, Severny (North) and Yuzhny (South) are separated by a strait so narrow that they appear as one on many maps.
It would be more accurate to write “over the islands of Novaya Zemlya” or “over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.”
Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica, National Geographic