7. Operation Castle
In 1954, the Air Force and the Army began Operation Castle, a project designed to test the strength of the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever created. The detonation of the device, codenamed Bravo, kicked up millions of tons of sand, coral, plant and sea life, and essentially vaporized three islands. Water was rocketed miles into the air because of the blast and was visible by islanders more than 125 miles away. It was a thousand times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
8. The ‘Bravo’ Fallout
The results of Bravo were far-reaching. Islanders inhabiting some nearby islands were discovered to be suffering from radiation poisoning — the symptoms of which are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, and more — thanks to the fallout from the blast. The testers themselves were forced indoors for several hours and had to be air-lifted out in the wake of the blast. It was the most significant accidental radiological contamination caused by the United States in history. The islands impacted by the blast were considered unsuitable for habitation thereafter.
9. The Redwing Series
Between 1954 and 1958, the United States detonated twenty-one more nuclear devices at Bikini. Their combined atomic force added up to more than 75 megatons (that’s more 165 billion pounds, by the way). That’s more than three thousand Baker Bombs.
