Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Footage Archive
Topics: US News
Emily Brown
If there's one thing we should hope for in life, it's that we never have to experience a nuclear bomb explosion in real life - especially with terrifying footage showing just how deadly the weapons really are.
Explosives might be a hot topic right now thanks to Oppenheimer, but considering nuclear bombs are weapons of mass destruction, it's safe to say we'd be in big trouble if we were ever really in the vicinity of one when it went off.
Researchers proved this with tests carried out in the US in the 1950s, when they blew up towns - fake ones - to see what would happen.
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The Nevada Test Site, located 65 miles north of Las Vegas, carried out both atmospheric and underground nuclear testing from 1951, until as recently as 1992.
For the tests in the 1950s, the fake towns were filled with all sorts of regular structures, including houses, shops and petrol stations, all made with brick and wood.
The towns were then populated with mannequin residents who were dressed in a variety of different outfits made up of different materials.
The eerie town with its mannequin people already sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but the towns became even more unnerving thanks to their nickname - doom towns.
Or should we say 'boom towns'? ... Because of the bombs? No?
Anyway, after all the hard work that went into building these towns, the researchers placed the bomb on a lookout tower 1,500 feet in the sky, with its high altitude intended to prevent the blast from destroying monitoring equipment.
Then, it was time for the explosion.
Footage from the tests shows how buildings were impacted differently by the bombs depending on how far away they were from ground zero.
One structure, which was approximately 6,000 feet away from the blast site, managed to survive, while others seemed to just have a gust of air rush at their windows.
Unfortunately, however, not all of them were so lucky.
Other houses that were closer to the blast were quickly obliterated, with one disappearing in seconds after the bomb went off.
According to the Atomic Heritage Foundation, mushroom clouds from the atmospheric tests in Nevada could be seen up to 100 miles away, and interestingly the sight sparked increased tourism in Las Vegas.
While nuclear bombs might usually be considered something to escape, guests actually flooded to see the clouds or bursts of light from their hotel windows.
Some hotels and casinos even tried to make the most out of the testing with atomic themed cocktails, and calendars advertising the detonation times.
Obviously the tests aren't still ongoing, but if they were I'd probably just recommend going to see Oppenheimer instead.