In 1956, the US published two maps that showed the contamination of atomic bombs. And they were key to spying on the enemy

On July 16, 1945, it was a historic day: in Alamogordo, in the New Mexico desert, the First nuclear detonation in history. The Trinity test was a success that led to the development of the ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ bombs that, a few days later, They launched on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before the test, the scientists bet on the results, with some bets that pointed to the destruction of the State of New Mexico, the ignition of the atmosphere and even the incineration of the planet.

Obviously, that did not happen, but what did happen is that Each nuclear launch He sent a large number of particles to the atmosphere. And two maps published in 1956 reflected the consequences of these releases.

Nuclear tests. Although the world was horrified by what happened in the two Japanese cities when the United States decided launch the only two nuclear bombs Used in combat so far, the powers continued to test the limits of the newly discovered technology.

Thus, from the United States they continued with launches in Pacific Islands. Russia also quickly began to develop its nuclear program, with tests such as the ”Tsar pump‘That had about 3,000 times the power of the launched in Hiroshima. These launches by both countries were a muscle sample in full cold war, as well as a deterrent tool.

‘IVY Mike‘. One of the US test releases was that of ‘Mike‘, a bomb launched on November 1, 1952 that vaporized an island, leaving a crater of almost two kilometers and 50 meters deep. It was the first detonation of a hydrogen pump, causing a 3.3 -kilometer radio fire at the time of the explosion, with a fungus -shaped cloud that stabilized 41 kilometers high.

Lookout Mountain studies immortalized the moment, adding later sound, since they recorded it without it. The rays were not part of the postproduction, but appeared just after the detonation:

Disaster. The consequences for the Eneetak atolón in which it was launched were tremendous. The expansive waves devastated the vegetation not only of the objective island, Elaugelab, but of the closest. In addition, it caused a radioactive rain and ships almost 60 kilometers away saw how pieces of radioactive corals fell on the helmet.

The area had remained seriously contaminated And, as we can see in these satellite images, Elfelab simply disappeared.

Atmospheric movement. With the rise of these tests, a team of researchers from the United States Meteorological Service published in the journal Science two maps that immortalized a historical fact: the trip of the radioactive particles around the globe. Declassified in 1956, the first one shows the global and relatively rapid atmospheric diffusion of radioactive particles.

The explosion has a very clear starting point, but as soon as the particles enter the atmosphere, they continue their expansion through the rest of the globe thanks to the air currents.

Radioactive particle dispersion. It was a very simple map, more than anything visual, but the second was much more explicit.

It was a map of isoline Particles even to American and Canadian soil. In Europe, these radioactive particles had been largely diluted.

Observation networks. It was not the first time that the movement of pollution had been studied, but it was somewhat reserved for great events, such as Krakatoa volcano explosion in 1883. With these maps, researchers wanted to demonstrate that, with the right tools, it was already easy to track volatile tracers in the atmosphere. And Ivy Mike’s were a good excuse to study.

Researcher Sebastian Grevsmühl published the study A few years ago and comments that, apart from satisfying scientific curiosity, maps had a more pragmatic utility. On the one hand, they helped build the idea of ​​the world’s contamination on a global scale thanks to atmospheric movements, developing that everything has consequences. On the other, they were a tool that the nuclear powers had to monitor enemy atomic activities.

Nuclear espionage. With these tools, Russian and American researchers could know if the opposite had detonated a nuclear artifact … even if he had not done it public, but also if they were using nuclear reactors or producing plutonium. So much so that, in 1949, the United States sought to determine the progress of the German nuclear bomb measuring Xenon-133 in the air.

To do this, they used B-29 bombers and 24 land stations distributed by the planet to collect air samples that would determine if they were developing something. This is how, thanks to the collaboration with the British army, they discovered that, in 1949, the Soviet Union had successfully carried out a first nuclear test.

Over the years, the tools evolved to cross radiological, seismic and sonic data that allowed to determine both the presence of radioactive elements and enemy nuclear bombs … and estimate their power. And much of that began with works like the one led to the two previous maps.

Images | Sebastian V. Grevsmühl, Mit Press

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