This page shows a simulation of the 10400 kt nuclear bomb (10400 kt) detonated over Elugelab, Enewetak, Marshall Islands (1952). 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.
Ivy Mike, 1 November 1952
The first true thermonuclear explosion was not a bomb at all but a 74-tonne cryogenic apparatus the size of a small building, fuelled with liquid deuterium kept near absolute zero. It stood on the islet of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The yield of 10.4 megatons was almost 700 times that of Hiroshima, and when the fireball cleared Elugelab no longer existed: in its place was a crater nearly 2 km wide and 50 metres deep.
Because the device sat on the ground, Ivy Mike threw up an enormous amount of coral and seawater and spread fallout across the lagoon; the mushroom cloud reached 37 km and spread to over 160 km across. Two new elements, einsteinium and fermium, were discovered in the debris. On this map the circles are drawn for an airburst of the same yield, which gives the comparison with city scenarios but understates the local fallout of the real surface shot.
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