The mushroom cloud from the Mike shot.

Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after Tumbler-Snapper and before Upshot-Knothole. The purpose of the tests was to help upgrade the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons, in response to the Soviet nuclear weapons program. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall Islands. Operation Ivy was an influential ska punk band that originated from the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x637, 55 KB) XX-11 IVY MIKE, was fired on Enewetak by the United States on October 31, 1952. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x637, 55 KB) XX-11 IVY MIKE, was fired on Enewetak by the United States on October 31, 1952. ... The atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945 A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke, flame, or debris resulting from a very large explosion. ... Preparation for an underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in the 1980s. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Operation Upshot-Knothole was a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted in 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... Soviet redirects here. ... The United States began using the Marshall Islands as a nuclear testing site beginning in 1946. ...

The first device, codenamed Mike, was notable for being the first successful test of a multi-megaton thermonuclear weapon design (the Teller-Ulam design), usually considered the world's first hydrogen bomb test. Too unwieldy to be deployed as a weapon, it was built to demonstrate the power and possibility of using nuclear fusion as a principle for larger-yield nuclear weapons than previously possible. It was detonated on Elugelab Island in the Enewetak atoll of the Marshall Islands. It yielded 10.4 megatons of explosive power, over 450 times the power of the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. The detonation obliterated Elugelab, leaving an underwater crater 6,240 ft (1.9 km) wide and 164 ft (50 m) deep where an island had once been. The mushroom cloud from the Mike shot. ... The basics of the Teller–Ulam configuration: a fission bomb uses radiation to compress and heat a separate section of fusion fuel. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reaction is considered the most promising for producing fusion power. ... Elugelab Island was part of the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands before it was vaporized by the very first test of the hydrogen bomb in 1952 as part of Operation Ivy. ... Aerial view of Enewetok and Parry. ... A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ... Nagasaki ) ( ) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ...

The second test, King, was a test of the largest nuclear weapon ever built at the time which utilized only nuclear fission as the source of its energy (it had none of its energy added from fusion or fusion boosting). It was dubbed the "Super Oralloy Bomb", and was intended as a backup if the fusion weapon was a failure. It had a yield of 500 kilotons — substantially smaller than a hydrogen bomb but still 25-40 times more powerful than the weapons dropped during World War II. Ivy Kings mushroom cloud. ... An induced nuclear fission event. ... Boosted fission weapons are a type of nuclear bomb that uses a small amount of fusion fuel to increase the rate, and thus yield, of a fission reaction. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

The mushroom cloud from the Mike shot. ... Ivy Kings mushroom cloud. ...

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Operation Ivy

• History of nuclear weapons
• Operation Castle

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... A nuclear fireball lights up the night in a United States nuclear test. ... Operation Castle was the highest-yield nuclear test series ever conducted by the United States. ...

External links

• Operation Ivy
• Internet Archive: Operation Ivy (1952) — film about Operation Ivy created by the US Air Force

References

• Chuck Hansen, U. S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History (Arlington: AeroFax, 1988)