This page shows a simulation of the 50000 kt nuclear bomb (50000 kt) detonated over Tsar Bomba site, Novaya Zemlya, Russia (1961). The map displays the estimated fireball, the zones of heavy, moderate and light blast damage, thermal radiation and ionizing radiation. Click «What does that mean?» for a detailed legend, or run your own detonation on the main page.
Tsar Bomba, 30 October 1961
The 50-megaton AN602 was dropped by parachute from a Tu-95 over the Sukhoy Nos peninsula of Novaya Zemlya and detonated at about 4 km altitude. It remains the largest explosion ever caused by humans — some 3,300 Hiroshimas released in one flash. The fireball was about 8 km across and nearly touched the ground; the mushroom cloud rose to roughly 64 km, seven times the height of Everest.
The rings on this map give a sense of scale that no photograph can: total destruction out to about 10 km, collapse of houses to roughly 26 km, third-degree burns on exposed skin to about 60 km in clear weather, and window-breaking overpressure to about 80 km. A wooden village 55 km away was reported destroyed; windows broke in Norway and Finland. The bomb had been designed for 100 megatons, but the uranium tamper of the final stage was replaced with lead, halving the yield and sparing the crew and the Arctic from the worst fallout.
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