The detonation of the thermonuclear
weapon, nicknamed Mike, yielded 10 megatons of energy, 500
times that of the Nagasaki bomb in
1945. The explosion left behind a crater almost 2 kilometres wide and 50 metres
deep where the paradise island had once been. Images like these were used as
powerful propaganda tools to show the USSR
that the Americans were a power to be reckoned with but instilled a sense of
paranoia and fear of a nuclear holocaust in the wider public for many years to
come. Many of the photographers and film-makers who recorded these tests are
said to have died prematurely after exposing themselves to massive radioactive
fallout.
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