Featured Image Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Topics: World News, Reddit, History, Chernobyl
Britt Jones
Topics: World News, Reddit, History, Chernobyl
When it comes to getting up close and personal with an object that can kill you within two days after standing near it for mere seconds, people typically try to avoid it... right?
However, after footage went viral showing the most dangerous creation humanity has ever conjured up, people have been left with the same question.
So, we’re answering it.
The 'Elephant’s Foot' has absolutely nothing to do with animals, and it’s something to be feared by all.
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According to science magazine Nautilus, 30 seconds of exposure to the ‘foot’ will lead to your cells haemorrhaging.
Four minutes in, and you can expect some vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. But if you dare to stay for 300 seconds, you have two days to live.
Thankfully, you’re very unlikely to stumble upon it in Pripyat, Ukraine, the location of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which occurred when a nuclear reactor went into meltdown in 1986, leading to the entire area being evacuated - where it remains barren to this very day.
The room the ‘foot’ is housed in is known as the 'Elephant’s Foot of Chernobyl', as it contains the radioactive mass that oddly looks like the foot of an elephant.
Footage and images show people milling around Unit 4 in the wake of the diasaster, and taking pictures of the mound of concrete, sand and melted nuclear fuel.
When a Redditor posted it online for all to see, people were freaked out by the dangerous mass. But many more wanted to know why the quality of the images weren't as bad and grainy as expected from a nuclear site.
One person asked: “Silly question,why there is no grain in the image from the radiation? Like that photo from the helicopter.”
Another said: “I'm also curious. Maybe footage was cleared up in the post production.”
Basically, when the disaster occurred, radiation levels on the 'foot' were at 10,000 roentgens per hour, which would kill anyone within three feet of it for 300 seconds.
This radiation was more than enough to make any image grainy, as it impacts the film.
Of course, when Artur Korneyev, a Kazakhstani nuclear inspector, took the image in question in 1996, the Elephant’s Foot was emitting around 10 percent of the radiation it held at the time of origin.
So, he could have stood there for up to five minutes before succumbing to its deadly side effects.
A Redditor was able to explain this perfectly in the comments, writing: “Video is from 1996 visit, the uranium mostly puts off alpha particles which do not penetrate skin, but are extremely deadly if inhaled or ingested, they weren’t around it for that long and they had ventilation
"The image would show considerable grain in 1986, but by 1996, the camera used wasn’t affected."
The exposed Chernobyl disaster site was temporarily covered up in the months following the accident, but it has remained entombed under the New Safe Confinement since 2016, while Pripyat continues to live as an abandoned city while allowing tourists to visit.