Virtual Globetrotting: Bikini Atoll

Rate: Bad [

] Good

	No Thumbnail	No Thumbnail
Google Maps	Live Local	Yahoo Maps
Update Thumb	Update Thumb	Update Thumb

Name:

Bikini Atoll

Description:

Site of the first Hydrogen Bomb test.

From http://www.rmiembassyus.org/Nuclear%20Issues.htm:

Bikini's weather outlook downgraded to "unfavorable" and Joint Task Force 7 directs several ships to move 20 miles to the south to remove them from the expected fallout zone. Despite weather reports showing that winds are blowing in the direction of inhabited islands, the March 1 Bravo hydrogen bomb test is detonated at Bikini. At 15 megatons, it is 1,000 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb. Within hours a gritty, white ash is enveloping islanders on Rongelap and Ailinginae Atolls. A few hours later, American weathermen are exposed to the snowstorm of fallout on Rongerik, and still later the people of Utrik and other islands experience the fallout "mist". Those exposed experience nausea, vomiting and itching skin and eyes. March 3 Rongelap islanders are evacuated 48 hours later, and Utrik is evacuated 72 hours after Bravo. Both groups are taken to Kwajalein for observation. Skin burns on the heavily exposed people begin to develop, and later their hair falls out. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a statement to the press calling Bravo a "routine atomic test", and stating that some Americans and Marshallese were "unexpectedly exposed to some radioactivity. There were no burns. All were reported well."

More Info:

Link

Submitted By:

AlbinoFlea @ 2005-08-24 12:26:39

Google Earth:

Download to Google Earth (KML)

Google Maps:

View in Google Maps

Live Local:

View in Live Local

Yahoo Maps:

View in Yahoo Maps