Crossroads Baker nuclear explosion of July 25, 1946, test fired at 27m underwater. Photo taken from a tower on Bikini Island, 3.5 mi (5.6 km) away.

There is controversy over the black splotch in the lower right corner of the blast whether it is the battleship Arkansas (which weighed 26,000 tons and was 562 feet long) or if its smoke from the detonation.

This is a picture from the 1946 detonation of a 23 kiloton nuclear bomb (same device design that was used to bomb Nagasaki) during operation Crossroads in Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. This tests was designated Baker denoting that it was the second in the series of 3 planned tests (but only two were carried out. The first being Able). It was the 3rd nuclear test ever conducted, and the 5th nuclear explosion in history.

The bomb was detonated 90 feet underwater amidst a fleet of decommissioned US and seized Japanese vessels. It was meant to simulate and document the effects of nuclear weapons in naval warfare.

More info on Operation Crossroads, for the lazy

December 29, 2013 | Categories: Excuse My Beauty, High Art, History, Nightmares of World War II, Photography, Pursuit of Happiness, Stunt Queens, The Drama Of It All, The Politics of Cultural Destruction, World War Two | Tags: Adolf Hitler, AMERICA, Atomic Bomb, Baker nuclear explosion, Bikini Atoll, bomb, Death, History, Military, Nuclear bomb, Nuclear bomb testing, Old photos, Operation Crossroads, Photo, Photography, Underwater nuclear bomb testing, USA, War, Warfare, Weird, World War two, WW2 | 3 Comments