Mysterious island shattered by a giant underground nuclear bomb that blew animals apart
dailystar.co.ukThird World War. It was intended to intercept incoming Soviet ballistic missiles while they were still outside the Earth’s atmosphere and detonate their warheads before they could reach their targets.Opponents to the test feared that it could create a tsunami or even spark a major earthquake.
Controversy over the tests gave rise to the organisation that later became Greenpeace.The US Atomic Energy Commission [AEC] said the likelihood of the test triggering a severe earthquake "very unlikely", unless one was already imminent on a nearby fault, and considered a tsunami "even more unlikely".Then-president Richard Nixon personally authorised the $200 million test, in spite of objections from Japan, Peru, and Sweden.The test went ahead on November 6, 1971.
The colossal blast lifted a wide area of the island’s surface some 15 feet into the air and when the smoke cleared a new lake was left behind.Nearly three hundred fish were found floating dead in nearby seas after the test, and subsequent catches declined substantially.
The remains of over 10,000 sticklebacks and 700 Dolly Varden were found in the island’s lakes, streams, and ponds, according to Greanpeace’s figures.As many as a thousand sea otters were killed, their skulls smashed by the force of the blast driving their eyeballs back into their sockets.
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