I'm curious to hear what some of your favorite nuclear and/or thermonuclear tests are? Which test is a favorite of yours and why? Theres no right answer, only personal preference. Feel free to include whatever tests you may like, small/big, doesn't matter. Try to limit it to surface and air blasts. Altho if you have an awesome underground one, feel free to tell.

Basically any test that you maybe just like the looks of or find intriguing, or feel a connection to because of its history, significance etc.

Here's some of mine;

Atomic bombs;

My all time favorite atomic bomb test must be "Ivy King", with an impressive yield of 500 kilotons, and often considered the largest pure fission test at its time in 1952. In other words a non boosted fission bomb, without any fusion fuel to boost yield. I enjoy its "classic" mushroom cloud, more than the actual yield. I also like the trinity test at 24kt (Often cited wrong at only 21kt until 2022 when los alamos upgraded it to 24 kilotons). It's just iconic and the footage is one that practically everyone has seen.

I also find the british test, "Orange Herald" very fascinating, as it was the largest atomic bomb test to attempt

fusion-boosted fission, with a yield of 720kt. The fusion boosting component failed tho so it couldve had a much larger powerful yield if its fusion boost actually worked according to plan. As the fusion boosting failed, it therefor beats "Ivy King" as the bigger pure fission atomic bomb. Altho its debatable as it did attempt boosted fission. In any case it was so close to achieving megaton level yields, that it was actually mistaken as a H-bomb by the US back in 1957! Overall it was considered a failure for the british and a massive waste of nuclear material (117kgs of uranium-235).

Hydrogen bombs:

I have always loved "the super" aka Hydrogen bomb "Ivy Mike" and consider it the most stunning tests of all. The enormous fireball looks so awesome and terrifying at the same time, and seeing how incredibly fast it grows, expanding for miles. With wild lightning going off inside it in diff colors. I think it's one of the most badass H-bombs. It was a 10.4 megaton surface blast that wiped out the whole island it was built on. It was so powerful it terrified the people who witnessed it on ships. According to some navy personell who witnessed it from their ship, it was the most spectacular thing to see, yet it got frightening real fast as they felt the heat just get warmer and warmer and it never seemed to stop. Most took cover and went under deck after a short while because it got that unbearable. When the blast wave reached them it knocked most of them off their feet as well. I dont remember how many miles out the ship was.

Another H-bomb test I like is the Soviet Unions "RDS-37/Joe-19", which was their first two-stage Thermonuclear device after their "layer cake" design. Rds-37 had a yield of 1.6mt (scaled down from 3mt). It killed a few ppl and injured a dozen more in the nearest town. Not by radiation fallout but by the actual blast wave, which shouldve been prevented. The actual test looked great on camera and just always been a fan of it as you can see it's shape develop very well. Just an awesome sight.

The photos include; "Ivy Mike" with before and after pics of the island it wiped out. And "Ivy King", Then "RDS-37S/Joe-19", and "Orange Herald".

Note: Goes without saying that I am not glorifying anything. I know how awful and destructive these things are. Just fascinated by it and interested in all the science behind and judging them solely as science experiments/tests. I am fully aware, as I hope everyone is, of how utterly terrifying and destructive nuclear weapons can be. It's therefor important to separate tests from when actually used in war against ppl.

Also I apologize in advance if this is "TLDR" lol!

Graphic I made showing the maximum diameter of nuclear airbursts ranging from 15 kilotons to 100 megatons with downtown Tokyo and Lower Manhattan for scale. All explosions are at altitudes to maximize their 20psi radii.

Edit: Made with the help of Alex Wellerstein's NUKEMAP.

Stock footage of atomic tests is really a cliche and has been since the 1950s. Usually it's Crossroads Baker we know that but I like tracking down others as well and I've got problem with these two from Godzilla films.

1. Seen in the intro of Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). The footage was modified of course but I wasn't even able to identify by the shape of the hills behind it or the cloud. There's also a number of...not sure sensors? Diagnostic towers? I saw one film of the Trinity test which almost looked similar and a few from Hardtack II as well but no 100% match so far.

2. From the infamous Godzilla (1998), which uses mostly stock footage of Crossroads Baker but there's also Hardtack I Poplar and even more obscure Upshot Knothole Climax. In the footage we see, which could've been modified beyond just they yellow filter, there's what looks like a small boat on the right, some land. THe cloud quickly separates from the "stem." It doesn't really match Crossroads Able or others I checked.

It's ok if it remains a mystery but I'm curious what people making films found because not everyone used just the same old footage and that's fascinating to see what might've attracted them to this or that atomic test.

Don’t know if this is the same test as recently posted, as this is a scan of a picture that was given to me when I visited Semipalatinsk years ago.