The most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history. The most powerful explosion in history

Train accident near Ufa, USSR. During the passage of two passenger trains No. 211 “Novosibirsk-Adler” and No. 212 “Adler-Novosibirsk,” a powerful explosion occurred in an unlimited cloud of wide fractions of light hydrocarbons, formed as a result of an accident on the nearby Siberia-Ural-Volga region pipeline. 575 people were killed, 181 of them were children, and more than 600 were injured.
The explosion of a large volume of gas distributed in space had the character of a volumetric explosion. The power of the explosion was estimated at 250-300 tons of trinitrotoluene. According to other estimates, the power of the volumetric explosion could reach 12 kilotons of TNT, which is comparable to the power of the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima (16 kilotons)/

Train explosion in Arzamas. Three cars detonated, carrying a total of 121 tons of hexogen intended for mining enterprises. At the time of the explosion, the train was passing through a railway crossing in the city of Arzamas.
The explosion destroyed 151 houses, leaving more than 800 families homeless. According to official data, 91 people died and 1,500 were injured. 250 meters of the railway track were destroyed, the railway station was damaged, an electrical substation and power lines were destroyed, and a gas pipeline was damaged. 2 hospitals, 49 kindergartens, 14 schools, 69 shops were damaged.

Explosion during the second launch of the N1 launch vehicle, USSR. The accident was due to abnormal operation of engine No. 8 of block A and the shutdown of all engines on the 23rd flight. The carrier fell to the launch site. As a result of the largest explosion in the history of rocket science, one launch pad was completely destroyed, and the second was seriously damaged.

British Engineers carried out an explosion on the island of Heligoland. The purpose of the explosion was to destroy German bunkers and structures. About 4,000 torpedo warheads, 9,000 underwater bombs, 91,000 grenades of various calibers were blown up - a total of 6,700 tons of explosives. Score - 3.2 kt. Included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest explosive detonation.

Texas City. The explosion of up to 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate and subsequent fires and explosions killed at least 581 people.

During the loading of ammonal in Nakhodka, the Dalstroy steamship exploded. 400 tons of TNT detonated.

Explosion of the steamship "Fort Staykin", Bombay - 1400 tons of explosives, killed about 800 people.

explosion of the cellars of the stern towers of the battleship Mutsu. More than 1000 dead.

The Battle of Messina - the explosion of 19 huge mines, containing a total of more than 455 tons of ammonium explosives. It is estimated that about 10 thousand Germans died.

in the Battle of Jutland - as a result of an artillery explosion. 3 British ships sank in the cellars: Indefatigable (1015 dead), Queen Mary (1262 dead), Invincible (1026 dead).

Since the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, more than 2,051 other nuclear weapons tests have been recorded around the world.

No other force represents such absolute destruction as nuclear weapons. And this type of weapon quickly becomes even more powerful over the decades after the first test.

The nuclear bomb test in 1945 had a yield of 20 kilotons, meaning the bomb had an explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT. Over the course of 20 years, the United States and the USSR tested nuclear weapons with a total mass of more than 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of TNT. For scale, this is at least 500 times stronger than the first atomic bomb. To bring the size of the largest nuclear explosions in history to scale, the data was derived using Alex Wellerstein's Nukemap, a tool for visualizing the horrific effects of a nuclear explosion in the real world.

In the maps shown, the first explosion ring is a fireball, followed by a radiation radius. The pink radius displays almost all building destruction and 100% fatalities. In the gray radius, stronger buildings will withstand the explosion. In the orange radius, people will suffer third-degree burns and flammable materials will ignite, leading to possible firestorms.

The largest nuclear explosions

Soviet tests 158 and 168

On August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month apart, the USSR conducted nuclear tests over the Novaya Zemlya region of Russia, an archipelago in northern Russia near the Arctic Ocean.

No videos or photographs of the tests remain, but both tests involved the use of 10-megaton atomic bombs. These explosions would have burned everything within 1.77 square miles at ground zero, causing third-degree burns to victims in an area of ​​1,090 square miles.

Ivy Mike

On November 1, 1952, the United States conducted an Ivy Mike test over the Marshall Islands. Ivy Mike was the world's first hydrogen bomb and had a yield of 10.4 megatons, 700 times more powerful than the first atomic bomb.

Ivy Mike's explosion was so powerful that it vaporized the island of Elugelab where it was blown up, leaving a 164-foot deep crater in its place.

Castle Romeo

Romeo was the second nuclear explosion in a series of tests carried out by the United States in 1954. All explosions took place at Bikini Atoll. Romeo was the third most powerful test of the series and had a yield of approximately 11 megatons.

Romeo was the first to be tested on a barge in open waters rather than on a reef, as the US was quickly running out of islands on which to test nuclear weapons. The explosion will burn everything within 1.91 square miles.

Soviet Test 123

On October 23, 1961, the Soviet Union conducted nuclear test No. 123 over Novaya Zemlya. Test 123 was a 12.5 megaton nuclear bomb. A bomb this size would burn everything within 2.11 square miles, causing third-degree burns to people over an area of ​​1,309 square miles. This test also left no records.

Castle Yankee

Castle Yankee, the second most powerful of the series of tests, was conducted on May 4, 1954. The bomb had a yield of 13.5 megatons. Four days later, its radioactive fallout reached Mexico City, a distance of about 7,100 miles.

Castle Bravo

Castle Bravo was carried out on February 28, 1954, was the first of a series of Castle tests and the largest US nuclear explosion of all time.

Bravo was originally intended to be a 6-megaton explosion. Instead, the bomb produced a 15-megaton explosion. His mushroom reached 114,000 feet in the air.

The US military's miscalculation resulted in the radiation exposure of approximately 665 Marshallese residents and the death from radiation exposure of a Japanese fisherman who was 80 miles from the explosion site.

Soviet tests 173, 174 and 147

From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR conducted a series of nuclear tests over Novaya Zemlya. Test 173, 174, 147 and all stand out as the fifth, fourth, and third strongest nuclear explosions in history.

All three explosions produced had a power of 20 Megatons, or about 1000 times stronger than the Trinity nuclear bomb. A bomb of this strength would destroy everything within three square miles in its path.

Test 219, Soviet Union

On December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted test No. 219, with a yield of 24.2 megatons, over Novaya Zemlya. A bomb of this strength can burn everything within 3.58 square miles, causing third-degree burns in an area of ​​up to 2,250 square miles.

Tsar bomb

On October 30, 1961, the USSR detonated the largest nuclear weapon ever tested and created the largest man-made explosion in history. The result was an explosion 3,000 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The flash of light from the explosion was visible 620 miles away.

The Tsar Bomba ultimately had a yield of between 50 and 58 megatons, twice the size of the second largest nuclear explosion.

A bomb of this size would create a fireball measuring 6.4 square miles and would be capable of causing third degree burns within 4,080 square miles of the bomb's epicenter.

First atomic bomb

The first atomic explosion was the size of the Tsar Bomb, and to this day the explosion is considered to be of an almost unimaginable size.

According to NukeMap, this 20-kiloton weapon produces a fireball with a radius of 260 m, approximately 5 football fields. Damage estimates indicate that the bomb would deliver lethal radiation 7 miles wide and produce third-degree burns over 12 miles. If such a bomb were used in lower Manhattan, more than 150,000 people would be killed and the fallout would extend into central Connecticut, according to NukeMap calculations.

The first atomic bomb was tiny by nuclear weapons standards. But its destructiveness is still very great for perception.

There is no artificial explosion in the world more powerful than the explosion of an atomic bomb. And although many countries around the world tested atomic weapons, only the USA and the USSR exploded bombs with a yield of more than 10 megatons of TNT.

In order to clearly see the destruction and casualties that such bombs can cause, you should use the service Nukemap. The inner ring is the epicenter where everything will burn in fire. In the pink circle, almost all buildings will be destroyed, and the percentage of casualties will be almost 100%. In the green circle, the mortality rate will be from 50 to 90%, with most of those killed dying from the resulting radiation over the next few weeks. In the gray circle, the strongest buildings will stand, but the wounds for the most part will be fatal. In orange, people with exposed skin will receive third-degree burns, and flammable materials will ignite, leading to massive fires.

And here are the 12 most powerful explosions in human history:

Photo: Publicitātes attēli

On August 25 and September 19, 1962, with an interval of less than a month, atomic bombs with a yield of 10 megatons were tested on Novaya Zemlya. The area of ​​the epicenter of the explosion, in which everything living and inanimate would be destroyed, was 4.5 square meters. kilometer Third degree burns would await everyone within a radius of almost three kilometers. Photos and videos of test materials, at least in the public domain, have not been preserved.

10. Evie Mike

On November 1, 1952, the United States was the first in the world to test a thermonuclear explosive device with a yield of 10.4-12 megatons of TNT - almost 700 times more than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The power of the explosion was sufficient to completely destroy the Elugelab atoll, on the site of which a crater with a diameter of 2 kilometers and a depth of 50 meters formed. Heavily contaminated fragments of coral reefs were scattered over a distance of 50 kilometers. The explosion was captured on video.

9.Castle Romeo

Photo: Wikipedia

In 1954, the United States launched a whole series of tests of thermonuclear bombs of a fundamentally different design than “Evie Mike” (more practical, although still inapplicable as weapons). The power of "Romeo" was 11 megatons and it was the first bomb detonated on a barge in the open ocean - this would later become the standard for American nuclear tests, since bombs of this power, as it turned out with the rest of the Castle test series, simply wipe out small ones from the face of the earth islands where nuclear weapons were initially tested.

Photo: Publicitātes attēli

On October 23, 1961, the USSR tested another nuclear bomb, this time with a yield of 12.5 megatons of TNT equivalent. On an area of ​​5 sq. kilometers it destroyed everything, and within a radius of three kilometers it burned everything that could burn.

7Castle Yankee

Photo: Kadrs no video

In 1954, the United States successively tested "locks". The next one was detonated on May 4 - with a power of 13.5 megatons and the infected clouds reached Mexico City, which was more than 11 thousand kilometers away, in just four days.

6.Castle Bravo

Photo: Wikipedia

The most powerful of the “castles” - also the most powerful American nuclear warhead - was detonated on February 28, 1954 on Bikini Atoll, before the other “castles”. It was assumed that its power would be only 6 megatons, but in fact, due to an error in calculations, it reached 15 Mt, exceeding the calculated one by 2.5 times. As a result of the explosion, the Japanese fishing vessel "Fukuryu-Maru" was covered with radioactive ash, which led to severe illness and disability of the crew members (one person died soon after). This incident with the "fisherman", as well as the fact that several hundred residents of the Marshall Islands were exposed to radiation in the direction of which the wind was blowing on the day of the tests, led to serious protests around the world and forced politicians and scientists to talk about the need to limit nuclear weapons testing .

Photo: Publicitātes attēli

From August 5 to September 27, 1962, a whole series of tests of nuclear charges with a capacity of 20 megatons of TNT each was carried out on Novaya Zemlya - 1000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Photo: Publicitātes attēli

A series of Soviet tests in 1962 ended with the detonation of a charge with a capacity of 24.2 megatons of TNT, this is the second most powerful explosion. It was produced at a training ground on the same Novaya Zemlya.

These disgusting examples of senseless cruelty continue to horrify even years later. Terrorist acts cause damage, first of all, to the psychological state of people. While the country's economy recovers from the attack within months, the sense of insecurity among the civilian population continues for years.

Our top ten today contains the most notorious terrorist attacks of the 21st century according to RBC.Rating.

The city of Qakhtanya, inhabited by Yazidi Kurds, a religious minority, was targeted by terrorists who blew up four fuel tankers loaded with explosives. At least 500 people were injured in the explosions.

9. Bombings in London (07/07/2005 and 07/21/2005, UK)

The first four explosions in the London Underground killed 52 people and injured about 700 more. The second series of terrorist attacks, fortunately, resulted in no casualties. All surviving terrorists were brought to justice.

8. Terrorist attack in Beslan (09/01/2004 - 09/03/2004, Russia)

One of the most brutal terrorist attacks in history. For more than two days, the terrorists held about 1,100 people hostage, mostly children. As a result of the terrorist attack, 334 people died, of which 186 were children. The only surviving terrorist was sentenced to life imprisonment.

7. A series of explosions in Iraq (06/24/2004, Iraq)

A series of explosions and attacks on police stations affected five cities in the country. More than 70 people were killed and dozens were seriously injured.

6. Terrorist attacks in Madrid (03/11/2004, Spain)

Took place 3 days before the parliamentary elections. As a result of four explosions in electric train cars, 191 people were killed and 2,050 passengers were injured. It is noteworthy that the explosions took place exactly 911 days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.

5. Explosions in the Moscow metro (02/06/2004 and 03/29/2010, Russia)

In 2004, a suicide bomber killed 41 people and injured 250. In 2010, two explosions also killed 41 people and injured 88 people. Doku Umarov took responsibility for the latest terrorist attack.

4. Terrorist attacks in Istanbul (11/15/2003 and 11/20/2003, Türkiye)

As a result of the first terrorist attack, suicide car bombs killed 25 people and injured more than 300. Five days later, a series of explosions killed another 28 people and injured 450. Al-Qaeda, as well as the Islamist group of radicals “Front of Islamic Conquerors of the Great East,” claimed responsibility for the attacks.

3. Terrorist attack on Dubrovka (“Nord-Ost”) (10/23/2002 - 10/26/2002, Russia)

A group of armed terrorists held 916 people for several days in the building of the Moscow Bearing House of Culture. As a result of the operation of the security forces, all militants were eliminated. According to official statistics, 130 hostages died. Shamil Basayev took responsibility for the terrorist attack.

2. Terrorist attacks in Bali (10/12/2002, Indonesia)

The worst terrorist attack in Indonesian history killed 202 people, 164 of whom were foreigners. The radical organization Jemaah Islamiyah was found responsible for the three explosions. Three organizers were sentenced to death.

1. The terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 (09/11/2001, USA)

Responsibility for world's largest terrorist attack Al-Qaeda took over. Nineteen terrorists, having hijacked four passenger airliners, carried out a suicide attack unprecedented in its scale of cruelty. As a result of plane crashes, the destruction of the World Trade Center towers and damage to the Pentagon, 2,974 people died.

The invention of gunpowder forever changed the nature of warfare. Already in the Middle Ages, gunpowder was widely used not only in artillery, but also for undermining fortress walls, under which tunnels were made. At the same time, the defenders did not sit idly by; they could also blow up these tunnels or dig counter-galleries. Sometimes real battles took place underground. These underground battles became a much later element of the First World War, when the opposing countries got bogged down in trench warfare and trench warfare and returned to the tactics of digging tunnels and laying underground mines of monstrous power under enemy fortifications.

Moreover, during the First World War there were two explosions of enormous force, one of which was carried out during the Battle of Messina in June 1917, and the second occurred in December 1917 far from the front line in Halifax, Canada, almost completely destroying this city. The Halifax explosion is one of the strongest man-made non-nuclear explosions that have been caused by mankind, and has long been considered the most powerful explosion of the non-nuclear era.

Battle of Messina

The Battle of Messina, or the Messina operation, lasted from June 7 to June 14, 1917 and ended successfully for the British army, which managed to push back the German troops, improving its positions. The battle took place in Flanders near a village called Mesen, during which British troops tried to cut off a 15-kilometer ledge of German troops. The British, who realized that they could not break through the German defenses with conventional attacks, began preparing for the operation back in 1915, 15 months before it began. During this time period, they managed to build more than 20 giant tunnels under the second groundwater level in a layer of blue clay. This engineering work was preceded by serious geodetic work and soil study on this section of the front.

The British mined all the dug tunnels, and carefully camouflaged the excavated soil so that the Germans could not notice it, especially during aerial reconnaissance. The English underground galleries began about 400 meters behind their defense lines. Since the German positions on this section of the front were along the heights, the tunnels passed under the defense of German troops at a depth that reached 25-36 meters, and in some places up to 50 meters. The total length of these underground communications was more than 7,300 meters, and at the end of the tunnels the British planted about 600 tons of explosives, they used ammonite. Still, the Germans managed to unravel the plan of the British strategists, but they mistakenly believed that the tunnels were located at a depth of up to 18 meters, so they managed to destroy only two mine galleries, another 22 remained untouched.

The advance of British troops on this section of the front was preceded by powerful artillery preparation, which began on May 28. And on June 7, with an interval of approximately 30 seconds, 19 mine galleries were detonated. As a result of these explosions, the first and second lines of German trenches were destroyed, and gigantic craters appeared on the site of the fortifications. The largest of the craters is considered to be the “lone tree crater”, the diameter of which was up to 80 meters and the depth reached 27 meters. As a result of these underground explosions, about 10 thousand German soldiers died, another 7,200 soldiers and 145 officers of the German army were captured, being demoralized and unable to offer serious resistance. The craters from those terrible explosions have survived to this day, many of them have become artificial reservoirs.

Tragedy in Halifax, Canada

In fact, the explosion near the village of Mesin was not an isolated one, it was a series of explosions that led to the collapse of the front line of defense of the German troops. And if in this case such explosions could be justified by military necessity, then in December of the same year, the largest explosion of the pre-nuclear era shook the peaceful port city of Halifax. The transport ship Mont Blanc, which exploded off the coast, was filled to capacity with explosives. On board were about 2,300 tons of dry and liquid picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 10 tons of pyroxylin and 35 tons of benzene in barrels.

Built in 1899, the Mont Blanc auxiliary transport could transport up to 3,121 tons of cargo. The ship was built in England, but belonged to a French shipping company. The explosives were loaded on board the ship on November 25, 1917 in the port of New York, the ship's destination was France - the port of Bordeaux. The intermediate point on the transport route turned out to be Canadian Halifax, where the formation of convoys sent across the Atlantic was underway.

Mont Blanc appeared on the outer roadstead of Halifax on the evening of December 5, 1917. The next morning at approximately 7 a.m. the ship began to enter the port. At the same time, the steamship Imo, owned by Norway, was leaving the port. As the ships approached, both captains began to make risky maneuvers, which ultimately led to the Imo ramming the Mont Blanc to starboard. As a result of the impact, several barrels containing benzene broke and their contents spread throughout the vehicle. The captain of the steamer "Imo" reversed and managed to free his ship and leave safely. At the same time, when the two ships were uncoupled, as a result of metal-on-metal friction, a sheaf of sparks appeared, which ignited the benzene that had spread throughout the Mont Blanc.

Knowing the nature of the cargo on the ship, the captain of the Mont Blanc, Le Medec, ordered the crew to abandon the ship. It didn’t take long to persuade the sailors; all crew members reached the shore safely, leaving the deadly cargo to their own devices. As a result, the burning vehicle began to drift towards the shore, eventually falling onto a wooden pier in Richmond, one of the districts of Halifax. Few people in this Canadian city knew about the nature of the cargo on board the Mont Blanc. For this reason, almost the entire population of the small town clung to the windows in the hope of getting a better look at the rare spectacle that was the burning ship. On both sides of the strait, around which the city spreads, onlookers began to gather.

A monstrous explosion at 9:06 a.m. put an end to this “performance.” The force of the explosion is evidenced by the fact that a 100-kilogram piece of the ship's frame was later found in the forest at a distance of 19 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, and the cruiser "Niob" with a displacement of 11 thousand tons and the steamer "Kuraka" standing in the harbor were thrown ashore like chips . In the city of Truro, which was located 30 miles from Halifax, glass was broken by the shock wave. In the area within a radius of 60 miles, bells spontaneously rang in all churches from the blast wave.

According to official statistics, the explosion in Halifax killed 1,963 people and left about 2,000 missing. Many of the wounded froze to death in the debris as the next day the temperature dropped sharply and a severe snowstorm began. Someone simply burned to death, as fires started throughout the city and burned for several days. In three schools in the city, out of 500 students, only 11 survived. About 9 thousand people were injured, including 500 who lost their sight due to flying fragments of window glass. At the same time, the northern part of the city, the Richmond district, was almost completely wiped off the face of the earth as a result of this explosion. In total, 1,600 buildings in Halifax were completely destroyed, another 12 thousand were severely damaged, and at least 25 thousand people lost their homes.

Explosion on the island of Heligoland

The Second World War gave the world a series of new powerful non-nuclear explosions. Most of them related to the destruction of battleships and aircraft carriers of the warring parties. The series of naval tragedies was brought to an end by the explosion of the Japanese battleship Yamato on April 7, 1945, when the main battery magazine detonated; the explosion was equivalent to 500 tons of TNT. There have also been tragedies like the one that occurred in Halifax. On July 17, 1944, in the United States, in the port city of Port Chicago, an explosion occurred while loading ammunition on board a transport. The mushroom cloud rose to a height of about three kilometers, the power of the explosion was about 2 kt in TNT equivalent, which was comparable to the Halifax port explosion on December 6, 1917, the power of which was estimated at 3 kt.

However, even these explosions paled in comparison to the one created by human hands on the German island of Heligoland in the North Sea. This explosion became a real echo of the war; it forever changed the appearance of the island, but did not claim a single human life, as it was planned. After Germany's defeat in World War II, the entire population of the island was evacuated, and the British decided to destroy all the remaining fortifications of the Third Reich submarine base here, as well as conduct seismic research.

Along the way, they solved the problem of disposing of the large amount of ammunition that remained with them after the end of the war. The explosion took place on April 18, 1947. By this time, 4 thousand torpedo warheads, 9 thousand deep-sea bombs and 91 thousand grenades of various calibers, for a total of 6,700 tons of various explosives, had been brought to the island. The detonation of these munitions, which had been prepared for several weeks, formed a mushroom cloud that rose into the sky to a height of 1800 meters. The explosion was so powerful that it was even recorded in Sicily. The explosion on the island of Heligoland was registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the most powerful non-nuclear explosion in the world. The detonation of the explosion released energy that was comparable to 1/3 of the power of the atomic bomb that the Americans dropped on Hiroshima.

The British planned that the island would be completely destroyed as a result of the explosion, but it survived. But its form was changed forever. The entire southern part of the island of Heligoland has turned into a huge crater, which is still an attractive place for tourists today. After the explosion, the British used the island as a bombing practice site for several more years, returning it to Germany in the 1950s. Practical Germans were able to rebuild the island in a few years, opening up a new stage of cultural and tourist life for it.

Sailor Hat Challenges

The largest non-nuclear explosions in history also include a series of tests as part of the US Navy operation codenamed “Sailor Hat”. This is a series of tests that were carried out in 1965 on the island of Kahoolawe (Hawaii). The purpose of the tests was to determine the impact of the shock wave of high-power explosions on warships and the equipment installed on them. As part of the operation, research was also carried out in the field of underwater acoustics, seismology, meteorology, and radio wave propagation.

Each test involved the explosion of large (500 tons) explosive charges. At the same time, the explosives were stacked quite interestingly - in a hemispherical stack, which consisted of 3 million 150-gram TNT blocks. The explosions were carried out in the immediate vicinity of ships standing nearby. Moreover, with each new test they came closer and closer to the explosion site. A total of three explosions were carried out: February 6, 1965 "Bravo", April 16, 1965 "Charlie" and June 19, 1965 "Delta". These explosions are well characterized by the phrase - money down the drain. In 1965 prices, 500 tons of explosives cost 1 million US dollars.

The effect of the explosions on the internal equipment of the ships was recorded on special high-speed cameras. Tests showed that the force of the explosions was sufficient to destroy the steel mountings and throw quite heavy radar equipment off their pedestals. But, despite the seriousness of the damage, the warships remained afloat. In addition, two observation airships were destroyed by a blast wave during testing.

Based on materials from open sources