The biggest explosions. The most powerful explosions in human history (9 photos)
What is a terrorist attack? In other words, this is the commission of an explosion, shooting, arson or other similar actions that frighten the population and necessarily create a danger of human death.
This article will talk about the terrible world tragedies that were a consequence of the actions of bandit groups and led to numerous losses among the population. The article provides a list of the largest terrorist attacks in the world.
Responsibility for such disasters, as a rule, is taken by groups hiding behind Islam.
Top 10 loudest of the 21st century
Here is a list of the world's largest tragedies by number of victims.
1. September terrorist attack in 2004 in Beslan, North Ossetia. As a result, 335 people were killed (including 186 children), 2000 were injured.
2. March 2004 - the largest terrorist attack in Europe since the 2nd World War, committed in 4 Madrid trains (Spain). A total of 192 people were killed and 2,000 were injured.
4. One of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in Pakistan occurred in October 2007. The result was 140 dead and 500 wounded.
5. In October 2002, on Dubrovka in Moscow, during a performance of a musical called “Nord-Ost,” a group of armed militants killed 130 people. More than 900 people became hostages.
6. The world's largest terrorist attack occurred in the United States of America in 2001 on September 11th. The militants' actions (4 passenger planes were hijacked) resulted in 2,973 casualties.
7. In September 1999, an explosion occurred on the street. Guryanov in a 9-story building in Moscow. As a result, 92 people were killed and 264 were injured.
Another explosion 3 days later, also in a residential building, claimed 124 lives and injured 9 people.
8. As a result of the militant attack in June 1995 on the city of Budenovsk, 129 people were killed and 415 were injured. More than 1,600 hostages were taken to hospitals.
9. The explosion of a Boeing 747 flight from London to New York over Scotland in December 1988 killed 270 passengers and crew members.
10. The crash of a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula in 2015 killed 224 people.
Below is a more detailed description of some of the most tragic terrorist attacks.
Twin Towers
Let's look at the largest terrorist attacks abroad using the example of 2 events that brought a huge number of victims, especially among American citizens.
The day of September 11th became a mourning day for all residents of this country and people around the world. Terrorists numbering 11 (the international territorial organization Al-Qaeda), divided into 4 groups, hijacked four passenger airliners in the United States and sent 2 of them to the New York Twin Towers of a large shopping center.
Both towers were collapsed along with adjacent buildings. The 3rd plane was directed towards the Pentagon building (not far from Washington). The crew of the 4th plane, together with the passengers of the flight, tried to escape by seizing control of the airliner from the terrorists. However, it crashed in Pennsylvania (Shanksville).
The largest terrorist attack in history claimed a total of 2,973 lives (including 60 police officers and 343 firefighters). The exact amount of damage caused is unknown (about $500 billion).
Boeing 747
As a result of the Boeing 747 crash over Scotland in 1988, 259 passengers and crew members and 11 residents of the town were killed.
It was an American PanAmerican plane flying from London to New York. This terrible disaster turned out to be tragic for some residents of Lockerbie, due to the destruction of the liner on the ground. Among the dead were mainly citizens of Great Britain and the United States.
Charges were brought against 2 Libyans, although the state itself did not officially admit guilt. However, it paid compensation to the families of the victims of this tragedy (Lockerbie).
In connection with the events that took place, in 1992 the UN Security Council imposed international sanctions against the regime of M. Gaddafi, which were subsequently lifted.
During all this time, many assumptions have been made about the involvement of senior representatives of the Libyan leadership in organizing that disaster, but none of them (except the guilt of former intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi) was proven in court.
These two cases represent the largest terrorist attacks in the world.
Tragedy in Beslan
Russia has suffered a huge number of terrorist attacks, which resulted in many casualties among innocent civilians, including children.
The terrible tragedy in Beslan (North Ossetia) is the world's largest terrorist attack, which claimed the lives of a huge number of children.
On September 1, a detachment of terrorists (30 people) under the leadership of R. Khachbarov seized the building of school No. 1, where he held 1,128 people hostage (mostly children). The next day (Sept. 2), the ex-president of the Republic of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, who was let into the school building by the bandits, managed to persuade the invaders to release about 25 women with small children and release with him.
Everything happened spontaneously. When in the middle of the day a car drove into the school site with the aim of picking up the corpses of people killed by bandits, several explosions were suddenly heard in the building itself, after which shooting began from all sides. Women and children began to jump out of the opening in the wall and out of the windows. At that time, all the men in the school had already been killed by terrorists.
The surviving children and women were released.
"Nord-Ost"
Many of the world's largest terrorist attacks involved the taking of huge numbers of hostages. This happened in Moscow on October 23, 2002 (21:15).
Militants led by M. Barayev broke into the Theater Center, located on Dubrovka (Melnikova Street), during the performance of “Nord-Ost”. There were only 916 people in the building at that time (including approximately 100 children).
The room was completely mined by the militants. Attempts to establish contact with them were successful, and after a certain time, State Duma deputy I. Kobzon, journalist M. Franchetti and 2 doctors from the Red Cross were able to enter the seized building. Thanks to their actions, 1 woman and three children were taken out of the building.
On the evening of October 24, the Al-Jazeera TV channel showed Barayev. This video was recorded before the theater center was captured. In it, the terrorists presented themselves as suicide bombers, and their demand was to withdraw Russian troops from Chechnya.
On October 26, special forces carried out an assault using nerve gas, after which they captured the building, and the terrorists, along with the leader, were completely destroyed (50 people). Among them were women (18). Three bandits were detained.
A total of 130 people died.
Statistics on victims of terrorist attacks over the past 10 years
Over the past 10 years, more than 6 thousand terrorist attacks have occurred worldwide. More than 25 thousand people became their victims.
Currently, according to various expert estimates, there are approximately 500 extremist groups and terrorist organizations. What is worrying is the fact that recently, more and more often, the targets of these gangster formations are places of mass gathering of citizens (remember the largest terrorist attack in the world).
Also, so-called “technological terrorism” is increasingly taking place, where the latest developments and technologies are used. In addition, recently there has been an increase in extremism among young people. Foreign citizens of different ethnic backgrounds are increasingly becoming targets of attacks.
2015 terrorist attack
The world's largest terrorist attack in the air occurred recently - in 2015 in the skies over Egypt.
The terrible accident with the Airbus-A321 aircraft (Russian airline Kogalymavia) was a shock for the entire society.
During the flight, a homemade explosive device with a power of up to 1 kg was detonated on board the airliner. into TNT. equivalent. This happened on October 31st. A total of 224 people died. After this tragedy, the Federal Air Transport Agency suspended regular, transit and charter passenger flights to Egypt from November 6.
A group from the Sinai vilayat (province) of the banned Islamic State (IS) in Russia took responsibility for the crime.
What happened on the peninsula is one of the bloodiest in the world.
Conclusion
In the 21st century, terrorism has become quite active and more sophisticated. Numerous news about tragedies fill the press and television channels. Almost every month (or even more often) terrible attacks are committed all over the planet, claiming the lives of civilians. This kind of action is a disease of the earth. Attempts by some authorities to protect the population from such disasters have so far been unsuccessful.
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 became 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 end to the series of these maritime tragedies was put by the explosion of the Japanese battleship Yamato on April 7, 1945, when the main battery cellar detonated; the explosion was equivalent to 500 tons of TNT. There have also been tragedies like the one that happened 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 Helgoland 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
On October 30, 1961, the most powerful bomb in the world was tested - the thermonuclear “Tsar Bomba”, later called “Kuzka’s Mother,” was dropped at the “Dry Nose” test site. Today we remember this and other explosions of enormous destructive power.
Humanity spends enormous amounts of money and enormous efforts to create weapons that are as effective as possible in destroying their own kind. And, as science and history show, it succeeds in this. Many films have been made and dozens of books have been written about what will happen to our planet if a nuclear war suddenly breaks out on Earth. But the most terrible thing is still the dry description of the tests of weapons of mass destruction, reports formulated in terse clerical military language.
The incredibly powerful projectile was developed under the leadership of Kurchatov himself. As a result of seven years of work, the most powerful explosive device in the history of mankind was created. According to various sources, the bomb had from 57 to 58.6 megatons of TNT equivalent. For comparison, the explosion of the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT. Many people know how much trouble she has caused.
"Tsar Bomba" served as a demonstration of the strength of the USSR to the Western community
The explosion resulted in a fireball with a radius of about 4.6 kilometers. The light radiation was so powerful that it could cause third-degree burns at a distance of about 100 kilometers from the explosion site. The seismic wave resulting from the tests circled the globe three times. The nuclear mushroom rose to a height of 67 kilometers, and the diameter of its “cap” was 95 kilometers.
This is not the sun. This is a flash from the explosion of the Tsar Bomba
Tests of the "Mother of All Bombs"
Until 2007, the American high-explosive aircraft bomb, affectionately called the Mother Of All Bombs by the US military, was considered the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world. The length of the projectile is more than 9 meters, its weight is 9.5 tons. Moreover, most of this weight falls on the explosive. The force of the explosion was 11 tons of TNT. That is, two “Moms” are enough to smash an average metropolis into dust. However, it is encouraging that bombs of this type have not yet been used in military operations. But one of the “Moms” was sent to Iraq just in case. Apparently, in the belief that the peacekeepers cannot do without weighty arguments.
The "Mother of All Bombs" was the most powerful non-nuclear weapon until the "Daddy of All Bombs" appeared.
According to the official description of the munition, “the force of the MOAB explosion is sufficient to destroy tanks and people on the surface within a few hundred meters and demoralize troops in the surrounding area who survived the explosion.”
Explosion during testing of the “Daddy of All Bombs”
This is our answer to the Americans - the development of an aircraft vacuum bomb of increased power, unofficially called the “Daddy of all bombs.” The ammunition was created in 2007 and now this particular bomb is considered the most powerful non-nuclear projectile in the world.
Bomb test reports indicate that the Papa's kill area is so large that it reduces the cost of producing the munition by reducing precision requirements. Indeed, what's the point of a targeted hit if it blows everything around within a radius of 200 meters? And even at a distance of more than two kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, a person will be knocked off his feet by the shock wave. After all, the power of “Papa” is four times greater than that of “Mom” - the force of the explosion of a vacuum bomb is 44 tons of TNT. As a separate achievement, the testers argue that the projectile is environmentally friendly. “The test results of the created aviation munition showed that its effectiveness and capabilities are comparable to nuclear munitions, at the same time, I want to especially emphasize this, the effect of this munition does not pollute the environment at all compared to nuclear munitions,” the report says acting Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Alexander Rukshin.
"Daddy of all bombs" is about four times more powerful than "Mom"
"Baby" and "Fat Man": Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The names of these two Japanese cities have long become synonymous with a large-scale disaster. The US military actually tested atomic bombs on humans, dropping shells on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Most of the victims of the explosions were not military personnel at all, but civilians. Children, women, old people - their bodies instantly turned into coal. Only silhouettes remained on the walls - this is how light radiation acted. Birds flying nearby burned in the air.
“Mushrooms” of nuclear explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The number of victims has not yet been accurately determined: many did not die immediately, but later, as a result of developing radiation sickness. "Little" with an estimated yield of 13 to 18 kilotons of TNT, dropped on Hiroshima, killed between 90 and 166 thousand people. In Nagasaki, “Fat Man” with a capacity of 21 kilotons of TNT ended the lives of 60 to 90 thousand people.
“Fat Man” and “Little Boy” are on display at the museum as a reminder of the destructive power of nuclear weapons
This was the first and so far only time that nuclear weapons were used in military action.
The fall of the Tunguska meteorite: the most powerful miraculous explosion
The Podkamennaya Tunguska River was of no interest to anyone until June 17, 1908. On this day, at about seven o'clock in the morning, a huge fireball flashed over the territory of the Yenisei basin and exploded over the taiga near Tunguska. Now everyone knows about this river, and versions of what exploded over the taiga have since been published to suit every taste: from an alien invasion to a manifestation of the power of angry gods. However, the main and generally accepted cause of the explosion is still the fall of a meteorite.
The explosion was so strong that trees were knocked down over an area of more than two thousand square kilometers. Windows were broken in houses located hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. For several days after the explosion, in the area from the Atlantic to central Siberia, people saw the sky and clouds glowing.
Scientists have calculated the approximate power of the explosion - from 40 to 50 megatons of TNT. That is, comparable to the power of the Tsar Bomba, the most destructive man-made bomb. One can only be glad that the Tunguska meteorite fell in the remote taiga, far from villages.
Incredible facts
Explosions, both natural and man-made, have terrified everyone for centuries. Below are the 10 most powerful explosions in history.
Texas disaster
A fire aboard the freighter SS Grandcamp docked in Texas in 1947 caused an explosion of 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate (a compound used in explosives) it was carrying. The shock wave in the sky blew up two flying planes, and the chain reaction that followed destroyed nearby factories, as well as a neighboring ship that was carrying another 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. Overall, the explosion is considered the worst industrial accident in the United States, killing 600 people and leaving 3,500 injured.
Halifax explosion
In 1917, a French ship fully loaded with weapons and explosives intended for use during the First World War accidentally collided with a Belgian ship in the port of Halifax, Canada.
The explosion occurred with enormous force - 3 kilotons of TNT. As a result of the explosion, the city was shrouded in a cloud of immense size, which spread to 6,100 meters in height, and it also provoked a tsunami up to 18 meters high. Within a radius of 2 km from the center of the explosion, everything was destroyed, about 2,000 people died, and more than 9,000 were injured. This explosion remains the world's largest man-made accidental explosion.
Accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
In 1986, one of the nuclear reactors of a nuclear power plant exploded in Ukraine. It was the worst nuclear disaster in history. The explosion, which instantly blew off the 2,000-ton reactor lid, left behind 400 times more radioactive fallout than the Hiroshima bombs, thus contaminating more than 200 thousand square kilometers of European land. More than 600,000 people were exposed to high doses of radiation, and more than 350,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas.
Trinity explosion
The first atomic bomb in history was tested in 1945 at Trinity Site, New Mexico. The explosion occurred with a force equal to approximately 20 kilotons of TNT. Scientist Robert Oppenheimer later said that as he watched the test of the atomic bomb, his thoughts focused on one phrase from the ancient Hindu scripture: “I become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Later, World War II ended, but the fear of nuclear annihilation remained for many decades. Scientists recently discovered that citizens living in New Mexico at the time were exposed to radiation doses that were thousands of times higher than the maximum permissible level.
Tunguska
A mysterious explosion that occurred in 1908 near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, located in the Siberian forests, affected an area of 2,000 square kilometers (an area slightly smaller than the area of the city of Tokyo). Scientists believe that the explosion was caused by the cosmic influence of an asteroid or comet (which had a diameter of perhaps 20 meters and a mass of 185 thousand tons, which is 7 times more than the mass of the Titanic). There was a huge explosion - four megatons of TNT, it was 250 times more powerful than the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Mount Tambora
In 1815, the largest volcanic eruption in human history occurred. Mount Tambora exploded in Indonesia with a force of about 1,000 megatons of TNT. As a result of the explosion, about 140 billion tons of magma were released, 71,000 people were killed, and these were not only residents of the island of Sumbawa, but also the neighboring island of Lombok. The ash that was everywhere after the eruption even provoked the development of anomalies in global climate conditions.
The following year, 1816, became known as the year without a summer, with snow falling in June, and with hundreds of thousands of people dying of starvation around the world.
Impact of dinosaur extinction
The Age of Dinosaurs ended approximately 65 million years ago in a cataclysmic event that wiped out nearly half of all existing species on the planet.
Research shows that the planet was already on the verge of an ecological crisis before the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, the final straw in what made the dinosaurs a thing of the past was the cosmic impact of a 10 km wide asteroid or comet that exploded with a force of 10,000 gigatons of TNT (1000 times the force of the world's nuclear arsenal).
The explosion covered the whole world with dust, every now and then fires flared up in different places of the planet and powerful tsunamis were formed. A huge crater, 180 km wide, appeared on the Gulf Coast of Chicxulub, which was probably the result of an explosion.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
This comet spectacularly collided with Jupiter in 1994. The giant gravitational force of the planet tore the comet into fragments, each of which was approximately 3 km wide. They moved at a speed of 60 km per second towards the ground, resulting in 21 visible effects. It was a powerful collision that created a fireball that rose more than 3,000 km above the clouds of Jupiter.
This explosion also provoked the appearance of a giant dark spot stretching over 12,000 km (almost the diameter of the Earth). The explosion had a force of 6,000 gigatons of TNT.
Supernova Shadow
Supernovae are exploding stars that often outshine entire galaxies with their brightness for a short period of time. The brightest Supernova explosion in history was recorded in the spring of 1006 in the constellation Lupus. Known today as SN 1006, the explosion occurred approximately 7,100 light-years ago in the nearby galaxy and was bright enough to remain visible during daylight hours for several months.
Gamma ray explosion
The explosions and bursts of gamma rays are the most powerful explosions known in the Universe. The light from the explosion of the most distant gamma rays (GRB 090423) is clearly visible on our planet today, located at a distance of 13 billion light years. This explosion, which lasted just over a second, released 100 times more energy than our Sun would produce in its 10 billion year lifetime.
This explosion likely occurred as a result of the disintegration of a dying star, the size of which is 30-100 times larger than the Sun.
Big universal bang
Theorists argue that the emergence of our universe is the result of the Big Bang. Although it is often perceived as such (perhaps because of the name), there was in fact no explosion. At the very beginning of its existence, our universe was very hot and extremely dense. A common misconception is that the universe exploded from a single, central point in space. The reality, it seems, is not so simple - instead of an explosion, space, apparently, began to stretch, “pulling” several galaxies with it.
This small explosion with a TNT equivalent capacity of 24 tons (in fact, there were two explosions - the first three tons, the second 21 tons) is already in full swing as the largest non-nuclear explosion in the history of mankind. Which of course is absolute nonsense.
There have been many explosions in history, an order of magnitude, two orders of magnitude, and even three orders of magnitude stronger than what happened at night. Officially, the most powerful, pre-planned non-nuclear explosion is considered to be the British bombing of the fortifications of the German island of Heligoland on April 18, 1947, when 6,700 tons of explosives were used (4,000 torpedo warheads, 9,000 depth charges, 91,000 various artillery shells). The power of the explosion was 3.2 kt TNT
Thus, the power of the Helgoland explosion was four times less than the power of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. It is clear that no one was injured in the explosion, and the explosion itself was documented in detail. The island was returned to Germany in 1952. Now this is a resort place where, please note, the use of bicycles is prohibited.
However, in 1985-93 in the United States, a series of 5 non-nuclear explosions were carried out at the White Sands test site in New Mexico, the power of two of which, known as Minority Scale and Minority Picture, exceeded the power of the explosion at Heligoland: 4,304 kt June 27, 1985 years and 4.25 kt on May 14, 1987.
But the very “bagaboom”, which had nothing to do with the fission reaction of uranium nuclei, occurred in the USSR, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 3, 1969, during the second launch of the Soviet “lunar” launch vehicle N-1. The launch of the rocket went normally, but at an altitude of 200 meters, the engines of the first stage began to turn off one after another, the last, 18th, turned the rocket 90 degrees and at the 23rd second of the flight it fell flat on the launch pad. As a result of the explosion, the power of which we estimate at 5 kT of TNT equivalent, and in the west (based on the amount of fuel on board the rocket) at 7 kt, the launch pad was destroyed and the neighboring one was severely damaged.
It should be noted that all four N-1 launches ended in accidents, but only in the second case did the explosion of the entire rocket occur directly on the ground.
What’s interesting is that during the four most powerful non-nuclear explosions in human history, not a single person was injured.
The largest "unorganized" explosions in peacetime are the explosion of ammonium nitrate cargo on the cargo ship "Grandcamp", which occurred in Texas City on April 16, 1947 (just two days before the explosion in Heligoland), the power of which is estimated at 2.7-3.2 ct TNT, as a result of which and subsequent fires in the city on the Gulf Coast killed 581 people and injured another 8,451, as well as a series of explosions at the Cyprus naval base Evangelos Florakis on July 11, 2011, with a total of approximately the same power. In the case of the recent explosion, during which 13 people were killed and another 62 were injured, there was enchanting carelessness - 98 containers of explosives were stored in the bright sun, where they were heated in 40 degree heat for several days.
In wartime, the most terrible explosion was the famous explosion in Halifax, Canada on December 6, 1917, when the French transport Mont Blanc, filled to capacity with explosives, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. The force of the explosion was 2.9 kt TNT. 2,000 people were killed and another 9,000 were injured. For information, the population of the city of Halifax at that time was 50 thousand people.
A column of smoke after an explosion in Halifax.
Interestingly, this city had to experience something similar again when, on July 18, 1945, ammunition detonated at the Bedford Arsenal in the outskirts of the city. However, in this case there were only a few lightly wounded.
However, the Halifax explosion is far from the deadliest of all non-nuclear explosions in history.
If we talk about a separate explosion, then the explosion of the Turkish arsenal in the Rhodes Fortress on April 4, 1856 is certainly one of them. The Turks used the Orthodox churches located on the palace grounds as gunpowder warehouses. One fine morning, as the church bells rang, the gunpowder detonated. Approximately 4,000 people died.
But the most terrible non-nuclear explosion in terms of consequences was carried out by the British on June 7, 1917 on the hills of Messina, when during the Battle of Passchendaele under German positions 22 charges with a capacity of 9.1 to 43.4 tons of explosives (455 tons in total) were simultaneously detonated. The total German losses amounted to 10 thousand people.
The first truly Big Bang apparently occurred on April 4, 1585 during the Spanish siege of Anteverp. At that time, the Spaniards occupied a large stone bridge at the entrance to the city, which prevented the Dutch (they later became Belgians) from receiving supplies along the Scheldt. Then the besieged equipped four huge fireships, each displacing 800 tons. Three did not reach the target, but the last fourth one swam to the bridge, but did not immediately explode. The Spaniards decided to capture it and at that moment the explosives detonated. Up to 800 Castilians died, a small tsunami went up the Scheldt, and a black cloud covered the city. The earth shook noticeably 35 kilometers from Antwerp, in Ghent.
Explosion in Antwerp. French engraving from 1727.
Just like that, and you are Tianjin, Tianjin...
