Nuclear blasts that shaped history – ASTONISHING VIDEOS

A series of tests carried out by the US in 1946 to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships that exposed many US servicemen to radiation and left the island of Bikini Atoll uninhabitable forever.

The most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated, the Soviet RDS-220 had a yield of 50 megatons: its mushroom cloud rose 64 kilometers into the sky, above the stratosphere, and the cap of the mushroom cloud had a peak width of 95 kilometers. By comparison, the largest weapon ever produced by the US, the B41, had a predicted maximum yield of 25 megatons of TNT.

This is an image of the 1970 Licorne thermonuclear test in French Polynesia, Fangataufa. The site of approximately 200 nuclear bomb tests, it now serves as a wildlife sanctuary for various species of birds.

The mushroom cloud from the first air-dropped Soviet bomb test in 1951. Released at an altitude of 10 kilometers, the RDS-3 detonated 400 meters above the ground.

Another incredible video of the Baker test, part of the US-led Operation Crossroads.

The testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in space, and underwater were banned by the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which was signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom in Moscow on August 5, 1963. Underground tests like the Baneberry test (1970) at the Nevada Test Site would still continue, however

In 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China, which banned underground tests as well. It has never come into force, however, as the US has never ratified it.