Elugelab Explained

Elugelab, or Elugelap (Marshallese: Āllokļap, [1]), was an island, part of the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It was destroyed in the world's first full-scale thermonuclear explosion, the Mike shot of Operation Ivy, on November 1, 1952. Prior to being destroyed, the island was described as "just another small naked island of the atoll".[2]

Environment

The land had palm trees and the surrounding marine had Heliopora coral growth which was home to Eurythoe complanata and Haplosyllis spongicola, most of which are now dead or dying.[3] [4]

Explosion

The fireball created by Ivy Mike had a maximum diameter of 5.8kmto6.56kmkm (03.6milesto04.08mileskm).[5] [6] [7] This maximum is reached a number of seconds after the detonation and during this time the hot fireball invariably rises due to buoyancy. While still relatively close to the ground, the fireball had yet to reach its maximum dimensions and was thus approximately 5.2km (03.2miles) wide.[8]

The detonation produced a crater 1.9km (01.2miles) in diameter and 50m (160feet) deep where Elugelab had once been;[9] the blast and water waves from the explosion (some waves up to 6.1m (20feet) high) stripped the test islands clean of vegetation, as observed by a helicopter survey within 60 minutes after the test, by which time the mushroom cloud had blown away. The island "became dust and ash, pulled upward to form a mushroom cloud that rose about twenty-seven miles into the sky." The outcome of the test was reported to incoming president Eisenhower by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Gordon Dean, as follows: “The island of Elugelab is missing!”.[10]

According to Eric Schlosser, all that remained of Elugelab was a circular crater filled with seawater, more than a mile in diameter and "fifteen stories deep".[11] The blast yielded 10.4 megatons of explosive energy, 700 times the energy that leveled central Hiroshima.[12] Aerial footage of Elugelab and adjacent islands well before Mike shot at a time prior to the connecting causeway being created is available,[13] as is footage after the causeway was finished that supported the diagnostic Krause-Ogle box light pipe system,[14] with numerous trees removed in preparation of the shot also plainly evident,[15] along with footage of the aforementioned helicopter survey of the Mike crater soon after the detonation,[16] and finally, high-altitude footage of the crater accompanied with details of its depth"175 feet deep"equivalent to the height of a "17-storey building" and with an area large enough to accommodate about "14 Pentagon buildings".[17]

The detonation also collapsed some natural crevices in the reef, some distance away from the rim of the crater.[18] Full radioecology recovery surveys were documented before and after each test series.[19]

Impact on the nuclear arms race

This test marked a pivotal moment in escalating the nuclear weapons development arms race. The Soviet Union conducted its own thermonuclear test three years later. It was believed that Soviet scientists were able to sustain the development of the hydrogen bomb partly because they received U.S. research details from atomic spy Klaus Fuchs. However, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists indicated in the 1990s that most of the information Fuchs provided may have been useless.[20] [21]

See also

References

11.6667°N 162.1869°W

External links

Footnotes

  1. http://www.trussel2.com/MOD/LocA.htm#Ānewetak Marshallese-English Dictionary – Place Name Index
  2. Web site: Operation Ivy (1952), see 24:00. 1952 .
  3. News: April 8, 1954 . Elugelab, the Island That Was . The Nanty-Glo Journal.
  4. Hartman . Olga . 1954 . Marine Annelids From the Northern Marshall Islands . Professional Paper 260-Q. 10.3133/pp260Q .
  5. Web site: Walker . John . John Walker (programmer) . Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer . Fourmilab . June 2005 . 2009-11-22 .
  6. Web site: Walker . John . John Walker (programmer) . Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer Revised Edition 1962, Based on Data from The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, Revised Edition 'he maximum fireball radius presented on the computer is an average between that for air and surface bursts. Thus, the fireball radius for a surface burst is 13 percent larger than that indicated and for an air burst, 13 percent smaller' . Fourmilab . June 2005 . 2009-11-22 .
  7. Web site: Mock up . Remm.nlm.gov . 2013-11-30 . 2013-06-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130607091341/http://www.remm.nlm.gov/RemmMockup_files/radiationlethality.jpg . dead .
  8. Web site: Operation Ivy (1952), see 56:50. 1952 .
  9. http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Ivy.html Nuclear Weapon Archive
  10. https://www.army.mil/article/47341 The Island is Missing!, article from the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
  11. Book: Schlosser, Eric . Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety . Eric Schlosser . Penguin Press . 978-1-59420-227-8 . 2013 . registration .
  12. News: Soviets Stole Bomb Idea From U.S., Book Says . 2008-12-29 . . 30 December 2008.
  13. Web site: Operation Ivy (1952), see 23:00. 1952 .
  14. Web site: Operation Ivy 1952 - Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands "The 9000 foot long causeway linking the islands together is the "Krause-Ogle box", a 9 foot square aluminum-sheathed plywood tunnel filled with helium ballonets. This box allowed gamma and neutron radiation from the blast to travel with little absorption to test instruments on Bogon.".
  15. Web site: Operation Ivy (1952), see 30:00. 1952 .
  16. Web site: Operation Ivy (1952), see 47:00. 1952 .
  17. Web site: Operation Ivy (1952), see 58:30. 1952 .
  18. Web site: Operation Ivy (1952), see 58:50 note the black lines drawn on the picture that appear momentarily at 58:55. 1952 .
  19. For a brief online introduction into some of these studieswith specific reference to the ecological effects of the 1.69-megaton Operation Castle Nectar shot, detonated in 1954 on a barge just north east of the crater of the 10.4-megaton Ivy Mike thermonuclear test see https://web.archive.org/web/20080410131227/http://worf.eh.doe.gov/data/ihp1c/0863_a.pdf a report by the University of Washington's Laboratory of Radiation Biology and https://web.archive.org/web/20080410131233/http://worf.eh.doe.gov/data/ihp1c/0434_a.pdf.
  20. Norman . Colin . January 12, 1990 . How the Soviets Got the H-Bomb . American Association for the Advancement of Science . 247 . 4939 . 151 . 10.1126/science.247.4939.151. 17813267 . 1990Sci...247..151N .
  21. Moss . Norman . Franklin . H. Bruce . Leitenberg . Milton . Bonheim . Ralph . Leventhal . Paul . Smith . Lucius . Robinowitz . Mark . May 1990 . Letters . Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists . en . 46 . 4 . 51–54 . 10.1080/00963402.1990.11459832 . 1990BuAtS..46d..51M . 0096-3402.

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