60 years ago, the world was shaken by the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever created and detonated during tests ever. This is the Russian bomb with the signature AN602
The bomb was detonated at 11:32 a.m. on October 30, 1961, over New Earth Island in the Arctic. It is of unprecedented size, unsurpassed so far. Weighing 26 tons and 8 meters long, its power is equivalent to 58.6 megatons of TNT equivalent, which makes it 3600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, detonated on August 6, 1945, and 10 times more than all ammunition, used during World War II.
The fireball formed during the explosion has a radius of 4.6 km, and the sponge - with a height of 67 km. The pressure at the site of the explosion is 211,000 kg per square meter (20.7 bar), more than 10 times more than ordinary atmospheres in a car tire. The powerful light energy released when the bomb exploded could be seen at a distance of 1,000 km in cloudy skies, and the sound wave reached as far as Dixon Island, located about 800 kilometers from the range. The heat could have caused third-degree burns to a person 100 km from the site of the explosion.
The seismic wave from the nuclear explosion orbits the globe three times and is felt by all people around the world.
The detonation of this monstrous bomb became one of the key moments that forced the Cold War countries to make important peacekeeping decisions.
