Strange Phenomena caused by Nuclear Bombs

Check out this footage of the 15 kiloton Gravel Atomic Bomb Test from Operation Upshot Knothole on May 25, 1953. Pretty impressive, this is the first and only artillery atomic bomb test in U.S. history. But what I'm interested in is this strange vortex that can be seen within the mushroom cloud. As the mushroom cloud rises into the atmosphere, a strange glowing funnel can be seen within the upper part of the cloud. This vortex appears to be moving similar to that of a tornado. And this isn't the only atomic bomb test to have this phenomenon. It can also be seen in the Priscilla test from Operation Plumbob in 1957. Both these atomic tests look almost identical. And if you look within the mushroom cloud, there it is, another vortex. It's like a rope tornado, even in the way it dissipates. The inner rolling vortices of Priscilla and gravel are pretty fascinating. But they're just one example of the many unusual and strange phenomena that can be caused by atomic bombs. And we're going to cover all of them. Like what's up with these spikes? What about these spikes? What are these rings? What the heck is that? Why do some mushroom clouds look different than others? We have so many things to cover. Let's get into it. Let's start off by talking about mushroom clouds. Like what even are mushroom clouds? Mushroom clouds are created by the effects of an atomic bomb interacting with different aspects of the Earth's atmosphere. So when an atomic bomb occurs in space or in a vacuum, it's a perfect sphere. It's like a star. Because it turns out stars are continual nuclear explosions. Now when you take that same nuclear explosion and you put it in the volume that is Earth's atmosphere, it starts off as a sphere, but it begins to rise and it transforms into a donut-shaped vortex. This is due to a process known as convection. Which is when hot air rises due to it being less dense than the cooler surrounding air. That's why dust devils form. You know, that hot sand. You get a little pocket of heat rising and it kind of... So this rising donut shape is referred to as the vortex ring. And as this ring of hot incandescent gases rises into the air, it creates an area of low pressure underneath. Thus creating an updraft, sucking in air and creating a phenomenon known as after winds. So if you look at this footage right here, see how windy it is? Well those are all the winds racing towards the area of low pressure underneath the rising vortex ring of the atomic bomb. The cooler air rushes in towards the bottom of the vortex ring because you can't have a vacuum. It's got to go in, it's got to fill that space. There's a proper term for all this and it's known as Reilly-Taylor or RT instability. Then it swoops up and sometimes it brings a little dirt with it, you know? And you get something known as a stem. And you have that vortex ring and that stem and boom. It looks like a mushroom. A mushroom is a type of fungi, by the way. Maybe I should have covered that first. The mushroom cloud will continue to rise until the inner gases reach an equilibrium with the surrounding air. They cool down and the air is all the same temperature. At that point, they kind of just drift with the winds. All that dust and radioactive material drifting with the wind can be a huge problem as it leads to fallout. Fallout is when radioactive materials such as, you know, dirt and debris get lofted into the atmosphere. And then they get pushed by the wind and then they fall out on top of... Radioactive stuff falls from the sky. It can look like ash. Not a good thing. The size of the mushroom cloud depends on the size of the bomb. Here's a chart showing height comparisons with different yields. Also, here's a cumulonimbus cloud as a comparison. Mushroom clouds can look different depending on a bunch of different factors. The humidity, the altitude of the explosion. During Operation Crossroads Test Baker, that atomic bomb test was actually underneath the water, but just barely. Like, it wasn't deep. It was just kind of slightly under the water. And it created this huge column of water that shot up into the atmosphere, which eventually took the shape of a cauliflower. Meanwhile, Shock Sugar, which was only 1.2 kilotons. Tiny guy. The way it reflected off of the Earth's surface created this double mushroom cloud. Airbursts, or atomic explosions higher up in the atmosphere, have stems made of water vapor. That's what makes them look so clean. So that's just the basics, but mushroom clouds can be very complex and create several secondary features. So let's talk about said features. In the intro, I talked about these strange inner vortices shown within the vortex ring. So what the heck is going on? What are these strange vortices and how do they form? Well, these are flaming hot gases that are still emitting light. By this point in the explosion, much of the gas on the outside of the vortex ring has cooled off. So you're just seeing the leftover smoke and material. But those inner gases are still super hot, making them incandescent. Eventually though, as the mushroom cloud continues to cool, these inner gases cool as well. And those inner ribbons of light rope out. Let's watch this footage of the famous Castle Bravo test in 1954. This atomic bomb had a yield of 15 megatons, making it the largest ever tested by the U.S. Notice this ring forming around the stem? Notice this ring, very clearly shown forming above the top? These are condensation rings, which are, well, condensation clouds. These form when atomic explosions occur in more humid conditions. The low pressure from the tail end of the bomb's shockwave briefly cools the surrounding air, sometimes below the dew point. If the temperature drops below the dew point, a visible cloud forms. Condensation clouds don't always form as rings. Sometimes they expand out like a shell. These are known as Wilson clouds. Operation Crossroads shot Baker is a classic example of a Wilson cloud. It gave this particular bomb a strange birthday cake look to it. Wild. As a side note, condensation clouds also create those very clean looking tornadoes. So you know how some tornadoes look really kind of dirty and some look super clean? Well, tornadoes are actually very low pressure regions. That's why your ears pop, you know, if you're in a tornado. Not that I've been in one, but, you know, if you're in a shelter, your ears will pop because it's the low pressure. Same thing happens, you know, it goes below the dew point and then you get a condensation cloud. Pretty cool. Anyway, this is a tornado channel, after all, I had to throw in tornado stuff. Larger explosions in the megatons can create extremely complex mushroom clouds with many different condensation rings. This amazing footage of the 5 megaton shot Tiwa during Operation Red Wing in 1956 shows several rings expanding from the explosion. Absolutely ridiculous. This might be one of my favorite pieces of atomic bomb footage. Go back to the Castle Bravo test. This higher altitude footage showcases another strange phenomenon. Ice gaps. These look like condensation clouds, but they're actually ice crystals that wrap around the mushroom clouds vortex ring. And you might be like, ice crystals next to an atomic bomb? That makes zero sense. But here's the thing, alright. This is occurring way up in the upper atmosphere, like, remember that chart from earlier? Yeah, way up in the atmosphere. So yeah, ice crystals next to a mushroom cloud are possible. These are also referred to as pileus clouds or scarf clouds. And they can often be seen above high altitude cumulonimbus clouds. Okay, check this out. This is footage of the Soviet test RDS-6. Whoa. What the heck is that? Well, that is a bell. These are also a type of condensation cloud, but these particular clouds are made up of large water droplets that begin to fall. So they actually drop down as the mushroom head rises, creating this really weird effect. In 1953, during Operation Greenhouse, the shot George also had another clear example of this. Very similar to bells are skirts. These look like a series of bells going down the stems of mushroom clouds. They can be seen very easily on the first British H-bomb, Grapple Y, in 1958. Okay, what about some other clouds created by atomic bombs? This photo is often labeled as the mushroom cloud from the Fat Man atomic bomb explosion that destroyed Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Except this actually isn't a mushroom cloud. This is a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. When the atomic bomb over Nagasaki exploded, it took the lives of over 80,000 individuals. Along with the many fatalities, thousands of homes and other various buildings ignited into a fiery blaze. These fires were so vast that the smoke formed a rare cloud known as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. These cloud types are also seen with large forest fires and volcanic eruptions. It is estimated that this photograph was taken about three hours after the bombing. So while not the Nagasaki mushroom cloud itself, it is still a phenomenon caused by the event. Every atomic bomb test since 1945 has either been over a barren desert or the ocean. So a similar cloud caused by an atomic explosion has not been seen since. If you watch hours and hours of atomic footage, like I have, you may notice that some tests, especially those done at the Nevada Test Range, may feature a row of vertical striped clouds. These are always lined up to the site of the nuclear explosion. But they're not caused by the explosion itself. These are actually smoke trails left behind from rockets that were launched just prior to the explosion. These rockets are referred to as sounding rockets. Their purpose is to measure the expansion of the shockwave as well as wind speeds. It's like using rockets as a form of graph paper. The shockwaves are invisible. You can't see them. But if you do that, you can. And you can measure stuff. Their first use was during Operation Greenhouse in 1951. And you can actually see the effects on these trails from this example right here. This footage of the rocket smoke trails being sucked into the vortex ring. Very cool. Okay, so let's talk about some other strange phenomena that can be caused by atomic bombs and mushroom clouds. Like, what about these spikes? These massive fireball spikes are caused by the rope trick effect. So what's going on? Well, before the tests are conducted, the atomic devices are often placed on top of large towers. Of course, we've seen this in the very first atomic bomb test, the Trinity Test, in 1945. These towers are often supported by cables known as guy wires. When a nuclear device goes off, it emits a huge amount of visible light radiation. That's that super bright initial flash that you see. The radiation from the visible light is so strong and so hot that it rapidly vaporizes the guy wires. Physicist John Malik confirmed this by painting the wires black to absorb more light. When he did this, the spikes became more pronounced. But when he covered the wires in an aluminum foil to reflect the light, the rope trick effect wasn't observed. Seeing the spikes just smash into the ground. Wild. So, we've talked about the ionization of air in the past. That's when air molecules become excited and emit light at varying colors. Aurora is a classic example of ionization, also St. Elmo's fire. When highly radioactive material is flying through the air, that also causes ionization. This was seen during the Chernobyl accident. Many reported a bright blue beam of light shining up from the hole above the roof of the reactor. Also, the infamous Lewis Slotin Demon Core Incident created a huge blue glow throughout the entire lab. Atomic bombs also do this, but it can be a bit hard to see. An aura of blue-violet-purple light of ionized oxygen and nitrogen can be caused by the intense radiation in the early moments following the atomic blast. It surrounds the mushroom cloud's head, extending a considerable distance from the fireball. The best times to see this light are at night and with really dirty, highly radioactive bombs. This was apparently seen during the Trinity test. That occurred in the really early morning hours, so it was very dark. A lot of the people who witnessed that test said that there was a blue glow around the mushroom cloud. Even other colors, like rainbow colors and all sorts of crazy stuff. I've seen a lot of atomic bomb footage and it's not really easy to see, but there is one test where you can see it pretty well. At least that I could find. This was seen in Operation Teapot during the test Hornet. As the mushroom cloud goes up, you can see that blue hue around the cloud. Do you kind of see it? I also kind of saw it in this example right here. Another form of ionized air caused by nuclear explosions is lightning. Yeah, you heard that right. Nuclear lightning. Many of the H-bombs tested over Enewetak Atoll had associated lightning with them. This can be seen in the massive 10 megaton IV Mike test in 1952. If you watch this footage, you can kind of see it. It's a little bit hard to see, but that's lightning. High altitude atomic bomb detonations can also cause auroras to form. This happened in 1963 when bright auroras were seen in the detonation area following the Starfish Prime test. Not only were auroras seen in the detonation area of the Starfish Prime test, but they were also seen on the opposite side of the Earth. I don't know what you call that. The Zenith? I don't know. But on the opposite side. Kind of like the Southern Lights and the Northern Lights. Same thing happened, but over the equator. This is so insane to me. Sometimes during that initial fireball, a little mini fireball can appear above the main fireball. A little cherry on top, if you will. Operation Hardtack Poplar was a 9.8 megaton beast that had this little cherry on top. You see it right here? This is caused by the explosion rebounding off of the surface of the Earth and then going straight back up through the fireball itself. And then you get this little cherry on top. At least I'm pretty sure that's what's going on. I'm not 100% sure. Let me know in the comments what you think is going on. So what about the spikes coming out of the Castle Bravo test that we looked at earlier? I don't know if you noticed, but there's spikes coming out of this test. What is going on? I'll be honest, I'm not sure. I've been trying to figure this out. I don't know if it's debris being spilled out of the mushroom cloud, out of the stem. I don't know if it's that or if it's just... I'm pretty sure it's not sound rockets. But if anyone knows what these are, please let me know in the comments because I'd like to find out. So there you have it. That's a list of strange phenomena that can be caused by atomic bombs. Thank you for watching. We'll see you in the next video.