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Uncategorized Thursday, July 8th 2010 at 10:26 am

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 (Minus North Korea’s)

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Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming. Video below:

Related: Wikipedia’s list of nuclear tests.

(Wired UK via Fark)

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  • XLakma

    What a terrifying sight and done with such simplicity

  • http://www.speakeasylive.net Speakeasy Live

    Read: An Exposé on Climate Control: Weedin’ our Garden of Eden http://www.speakeasylive.net/letters/uglysweater

  • 8unity8

    no wonder my brother who was concieved in White Sands NM in around ’52 died of Leukemia 3 yrs later!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001024198090 Scott Mccormick

    Depressing and ridiculous.And well done sir,well done.

  • http://twitter.com/Exguard William Davidson

    If this was an extraterrestial view, we certainly look as ustable as we have proven ourselves to be in the last few millenia.. not much wonder we are left alone

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Micheal-Shea/100002185965912 Micheal Shea

    What’s so scary about this? I love all this hippy talk “oh, if aliens saw this, we look like morons.”

    BULLSHIT!

    The lack of nuclear testing these days is scaring me.

  • Brad Cairnduff

    Micheal, Eric Idle once wrote a song called ‘How sweet, to be an idiot’ Surely, you can’t be serious. You fear a lack of nuclear testing. Is this a gee up?

  • Pete-l

    erm, why does the soviet union not collapse?

  • Thagist1391

    Nuclear arms actually, when second strike is implied and the MAD card is dropped, ensures stability in a bipolar world, so the reason why there was no nuclear war in the cold war is because there were nuclear weapons.  So in a sense, nuclear weapons kept us safe, albeit as it may a fragile safety that hinged on paranoia, even though both sides preferred as history shows, diplomacy to action.  
    http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/mutually_assured_destruction_matrix_game.pngThis shows the risk reward payoffs when both sides have second strike, they are the only game that produces neutral results.

  • Thagist1391

    Refer to the image, the page didnt post right.  Feel free to ask questions

  • Castle

    Nice “flash” system . Connecting this to what happened to peoples minds in the 60´ies and forth , it is easy to see why mankind has changed . It is easy to see why so many people get sick , even today , more and more often .
    Have also get a little about the connection between this and earthquakes . No wonder the planet is about the get angry and give back on us . No wonder the natural balance on the earth is destroyed . The weather system is off the track and getting worse . After watching this , it all makes sense now .
    We deserve what is coming to us in the next few years . And believe it , it will hurt .

  • Castle

    Thagist1391 ….. Over 2000 nuclear bombs has been expolded on this planet . How is that NOT a nuclear war ?

  • Thagist1391

    um because they were not fired in anger or with any intent to kill, they were only tests?  Minus the two in 1945, those were the only malicious deaths…so that is exactly why it isnt not a war?  Are you kidding me?

  • Thagist1391

    im just using the definition of what nuclear war would entail, seeing as if it were nuclear war, then well we wouldnt be writing about all this.  As for if you intend to respond with, “it is war against the earth” and so forth, the Earth is capable of absorbing far more violent natural phenomena, so our little man made “tickles”. Yep, I stand by my use of tickles

  • Castle

    Perhaps only tests as you say . But they still have the same effect as IF used in regular war . hus the earth and the weather has been changed far too much already because of it .
    Perhaps not a war against humans , but a war against nature nevertheless .
    I could be wrong, but there is a very good chance that all the changes in the weather these last few years and natural disasters , is because of all of those nuclear tests .
    I will  not go higher than 99 percent , there has to be room for errors . But I am certain this is the reason . And ond now only more countries has that power .
    Take a look at it again , and tell me that none of it has been spread by the winds , or that none of it has caused any earthquakes . Some of those tests in Russia for examble , are rather close to a super vulcano . And those in US , though they are not “rather” close , they have still been expolded in around the same spot , thus making ground shakes easier to travel , as water ripples . From that side , not very far again from the super vulcano in US .
    What do you think will happen , when the super vulcanoes blow up .
    The earth is reacting to our (humans) ignorance and destructive force towards the earth and nature . Do you see any governments doing any form of action to stop it .
    I only see that it continues and spreading among countries as a disease .
    hat bomb should never have been invented .

  • Anonymous

    my mother grew up i northern norway during the time when the soviet used novaya zemyla as a test site, although most bombs went off underground as far as i am concerned. I am a bit scared about a possible fallout in norway perhaps? anyone got some ideas here, i see that nevada was used a lot by the americans that should alos be a bit frightening for people living in califiornia perhaps–

  • Thagist1391

    where is the evidence that these tests are causing earth quakes…like I am offended that you are so certain without any real evidence?  Besides there is no fallout risk, as they controlled them, and when they did test them it was within a time frame to allow dissipation of fallout, these governments were not idiots about this people?  Besides if there were any ill effects to people, then well, it was minor and not nearly as bad as the oh say hundreds killed walking everyday.  Also, these tests were mostly minor capacity explosions, meaning they never tested full yield…which would be stupid.  Like you people.  Also, if “that bomb” was never invented, then we would have had to either invade or blockaded Japan, meaning millions upon millions would have died, so…in essence, back to my original argument, that bomb, has saved more lives by threatening to take them away then it ever killed. which incidentally was only about 100,000 to 200,000 people ever. 

  • Thagist1391

    also, without it, we would have fought a conventional war with the USSR, because what would have stopped us?  The bomb is a good thing, having it is a global series of checks and balances to prevent super power war, for fucks sake it made allies out of enemies because the fear of doomsday forced people to play nice.  

  • Thagist1391

    its been about 35 years since we tested a bomb in the US…we are all fine, thank you for your concern…i guess…

  • Lock123

    My Mom grew up in las vegas in the fifties, both her parents died of leukemia and her brothers both now have cancer after having come from previously healthy familes. Cancer rates are continuing to skyrocket in the U.S. We are all fine here? What planet do you live on? We will continue to live with the “fallout” of our stupidity for god knows how long.

  • Asdsad

    1032 nuclear tests o_o

  • Asdsad

    i mean 2053

  • Hestonfan

    As for the first three, two words Pearl Harbor.

  • Dcobb002

    I did not know my home state of Louisiana got nuked… This map is probably 100% bs

  • Henry

    Where’s South Africa?

  • J R

    Typical Fucking retard trigger happy Americans. Absolutely unbelievable. You wonder why the world hates you..

  • Brian

    Astonishing. One small error arising from Wikipedia (now fixed!) The US test of 6 May 1962 was not on the Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean but at Kiritimati (Christmas Is) in the Pacific, then a British territory.

  • GK

    No South Africa or Israel?

  • Mand1855

    Wow. Humanity is pretty f***ed up, isn’t? We discover some useless piece of technology, and the whole world can literally end any day now. It saved hundreds of thousands of lives at the end of World War II, and now some maniac can press a button and millions of lives will be wasted. Rust in Peace, humanity…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=618948017 Robert K. Tompsett

    I miss the Cold War! Those was the days!

  • buttonhatch

    what else do you expect to learn that we haven’t already figured out from over a thousand nuclear tests

  • Oscar11

    You made some interesting points there but… it’s not
    as simple as that. You probably know this already but I’ll explain it
    anyway… When an atomic bomb explodes, it’s very different to any other
    type of bomb. Firstly there’s the huge explosion which can spread for
    miles upon miles, destroying everything in its radius. But it doesn’t
    end there… In the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, comes something
    else known as a nuclear fallout. A nuclear fallout is when the radiation
    ejected into the atmosphere from a nuclear explosion begins to settle
    to the ground. As you should know, radiation is lethal to all life
    (except for cockroaches). It can kill whoever or whatever comes into
    contact with it, and a child conceived in a radioactive environment
    would be a lot less likely to survive, more likely to be born with
    deficiencies and other mental and physical problems that vary from retardation to leukemia, blindness and deformity. What’s worse is that regardless of the earths capabilities of absorbing lethal toxins, it can take a long time. Ever heard of half-life? Not the game now… It is the time required for half the atoms of a given amount of a radioactive substance to disintegrate.
    So if the half-life is 10 years, half the radiation will be gone after
    the first 10 years, but only half of what’s left will be gone after the
    next 10 years, and then 10 more years would mean only losing half the
    amount of what was lost the previous 10 years. How long it takes depends
    on the level of concentration etc, and half the amount is not
    necessarily in the safe zone. In fact, it can be far from safe, and
    given the fact about half-life means it could take up to thousands of
    years for an area that has been contaminated, whether it was caused by
    nuclear testing or a nuclear meltdown, to go back to normal again, some
    areas being completely uninhabitable.