Everybody likes to watch explosions. Come on, admit it: you like looking at enormous blasts on YouTube because they simultaneously thrill you and make you feel safer and more cautious in your tiny little life. OK, maybe I am projecting a little. But who cares. Whether they’re the result of war, science, freak accidents or rocket failures, destruction is in our blood. The fireball is our final heartbeat, the blastwave is our last breath.
I hope you love the following selection of devastating detonations as much as I do.
The Halifax explosion, December 1917
The town of Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) was destroyed by the explosion of a cargo ship loaded with military explosives. About two thousand people were killed and almost 10 thousands were injured. Until the first nuclear blast, it was the largest man-made explosion in recorded history with an equivalent force of 2.9 kilotons of TNT.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Hindenburg catastrophe, May 1937
This photo, taken at almost the split second that the Hindenburg exploded, shows the 245m German zeppelin — loaded with flammable hydrogen gas — just before the second and third explosions send the ship crashing to the earth over the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, NJ.
The fate of USS Shaw, December 1941
The forward magazine of USS Shaw (DD-373) explodes during the second Japanese attack wave in Pearl Harbor.
The Trinity explosion, July 1945
At 5.29am the world’s first atomic bomb — with a yield of around 20 kilotons — exploded over the southern New Mexico desert. The destroyer of worlds was born.
Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Texas City Disaster, April 1947
Refineries and oil storage tanks of the Monsanto chemical plant burn in the waterfront area of Texas City, TX. The disaster was caused by the explosion of the French ship Grandcamp, which was loaded with 7700 tons of ammonium nitrate. About 2.7 kilotons of energy — the equivalent of 1.134 kilotons of TNT — was released. 581 died and more than 5000 were injured. This is generally considered the worst industrial accident in United States history.
Heligoland, April 1947
British engineers attempted to destroy the entire North Sea island of Heligoland (home of a Nazi naval fortification) with the help of 4000 tons of wartime ammunition. The blast — the largest single non-nuclear explosive detonation until Minor Scale (see below) — released about 3.2 kilotons of TNT-equivalent energy.
Castle Bravo, March 1954
Castle Bravo, a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb, was the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States (15 megatons).
The Vanguard explosion, December 1957
Taking place shortly after the Sputnik debacle, the Vanguard TV3 was the US’s first attempt to place a satellite in Earth orbit. A malfunction in first stage caused the launch vehicle to lose thrust after two seconds, and a vehicle fully loaded with liquid oxygen and kerosene was destroyed.
Source: YouTube/CRGIS Interns
Ripple Rock, April 1958
Ripple Rock was an underwater, twin-peaked mountain, hazardous to ships passing through the Seymour Narrows of the Discovery Passage in British Columbia, Canada. It was destroyed with the help of 1270 tonnes of Nitramex 2H explosives.
Source: YouTube/John Hutchison
Failed Titan I launch, December 1959
Cape Canaveral, Launch Complex 16. The TITAN Ballistic Missile Program went terribly wrong on this day because of the failure of the Titan I C-3 rocket loaded with about 100 tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene.
Source: YouTube/Mr Dan Beaumont
The Nedelin catastrophe, October 1960
The deadliest launch pad accident in history. About one hundred people died at Baikonur test range, when the second stage ignited prematurely during the test of the Soviet ICBM R-16 rocket.
The Tsar Bomba, October 1961
The Soviets’ AN602 — a three-stage Teller–Ulam design hydrogen bomb with a yield of 57 megatons — was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.
Atlas-Centaur rocket explosion, March 1965
The liquid oxygen and kerosene fuelled Atlas LV-3C Centaur-C rocket destroyed itself and the Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Operation Sailor Hat, 1965
A series of tests was performed by the United States Navy, using a 450-ton mass of high explosives (i.e. TNT) to simulate the shock effects of nuclear blasts on naval vessels, on the island of Kahoʻolawe, Hawaii.
Photo: US Navy/NHHC
N1 launch explosion, July 1969
One of the four N1 rockets that the Soviets intended to send to the moon exploded on the launch pad. The blast of the 678,574kg of liquid oxygen and kerosene released around 29TJ energy, comparable to the Hiroshima blast. This was the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history.
Source: YouTube/Roscosmos TV
The Murdock BLEVE, September 1983
A tanker carrying 113,000 litres of liquid propane and isobutane explodes in an enormous BLEVE (Boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion) after a train derailment in Murdock, Illinois.
The San Juanico disaster, November 1984
One of the deadliest industrial disasters in history was caused by a series of explosions at the Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) liquid petroleum gas (LPG) depot in San Juanico, Mexico. The explosions destroyed the entire facility, which held 11,000 cubic metres of liquified propane and butane gas. It devastated the town. More than 500 people died, and thousands suffered severe burns.
Minor Scale, June 1985
The United States Defense Nuclear Agency conducted a test to simulate the blast of a nuclear weapons by detonating 4.8 kilotons of ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This was the largest planned, non-nuclear explosion in history.
The PEPCON disaster, May 1988
Nearly nine million pounds rocket fuel — mostly ammonium perchlorate, an oxidiser used in the solid fuel rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle System (STS) — exploded at the Pacific Engineering Production Company of Nevada in Henderson, and released the equivalent energy of about 2.7 Kilotons of TNT. The disaster — two large and five lesser explosions — claimed two lives, injured 372 people and caused an estimated $US100 million in damage.
MOAB test, 2003
The 10,250kg GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Burst (MOAB, nicknamed “Mother of All Bombs”) is a large-yield thermobaric bomb: the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed for the US.
Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal Fire, December 2005
That Sunday morning there was a series of major explosions at one of the biggest oil depots in the UK — 270,000,000-litre capacity — in Buncefield, England. The explosions were heard over 160km away, as far as the Netherlands and France. Astonishingly, there was not a single fatality.
Photo: Hertfordshire Police/Getty Images
Sea Launch Rocket Failure, January 2007
The unmanned Zenit 3SL rocket — loaded with liquid oxygen and kerosene — was supposed to carry a satellite into orbit from the Sea Launch platform Ocean Odyssey. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.
FOAB test, September 2007
The Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP), nicknamed the “Father of All Bombs” (FOAB), is a Russian non-nuclear weapon, allegedly four times more powerful than the US military’s MOAB and plainly evaporates every living creatures in its blast range.
The last BLU-82, July 15, 2008
With these 6800kg conventional bombs, the USAF was able to convert any hostile terrain into a clean and friendly helicopter landing zone (for example in Vietnam or Afghanistan). The BLU-82 weapon system was retired in 2008 and replaced with the more powerful MOAB. The last bomb was detonated at the Utah Test and Training Range.
Photo: Capt Patrick Nichols/US Air Force
Cataño oil refinery fire, October 2009
There was a major gasoline tank explosion at the Caribbean Petroleum Corporation oil refinery and oil depot in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The blast was seen and heard from 80km away and left a smoke plume as high as 30,000 feet. The detonation caused a magnitude 3.0 earthquake and blew glass around the city.
Did we miss you favourite blast? Post it in the comments!