Heavy Ordinance Detonation in Iraq

In the first video you will see the detonation of what is equivalent to 30 tons of TNT quickly followed by a 429-ton detonation, from a range of several miles away.

For some perspective there, the larger blast is less than half of the explosive force of a one-kiloton nuclear detonation. A one-kiloton device is believed to be the world's smallest nuclear bomb today, the so-called "suitcase nuke" in the armory of Russian commandos. For more perspective, consider that the bombs dropped on Japan at the end of WWII were 15 and 21-kiloton blasts, or about 30 and 42 times the size of the blast you will see here in the second detonation. For even greater perspective, the world's largest nuclear bomb, also a Russian device, created a blast more than 100,000 times as large as the one you are about to see.

After you have seen these vids, be sure to check out the "Nuke Your City" page, and see how different nuclear bombs might affect your hometown.





In the following videos you will see the Camp Falcon ammo dump detonate ordinance uncontrollably after an attack by insurgents. Some people believed that a tactical nuclear device had been detonated, but it was clearly conventional ordinance for a number of reasons, including the fact that the blasts we see are less than a kiloton.

First, a long-range shot broadcast by al_Jazeera, followed up by some inline links of footage filmed by US personnel...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR0EZyaHrBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF0tAOkrxY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIO3xk5-tXM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QLTp1DruI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XisEJXL3YbM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1ZvWJXoWXM