Seventy years ago, the US Air Force's "Enola Gay" B-29Superfortress bomber dropped a 15-kiloton nuclear bomb, code-named Little Boy, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.The blast, which was the first detonation of a uranium-based nuclear device in history,instantly killed 70,000 people, whilethe lasting effects of the radiation brought the toll up to 140,000.Hiroshima, a city of 310,000, was almost completely annihilated.The nuclear chain reaction unleashed by a mere two pounds of concentrated uranium atoms, created when two hemispheres containing a total of 140 pounds ofhigh-enriched uraniumslammed into one another about 1,900-feet above Hiroshima, created an over 1,000-foot fireball, ended tens of thousands of lives, and vaporized an entire city.It's impossible to truly grasp the enormity of an atomic blast like the one that leveled Hiroshima, butThe Nuke Mapis an invaluableattempt at it.The work ofAlex Wellerstein, a historian of nuclear technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology, the Nuke Map lets usersdetonate bombs of various yield over any point on earth and then calculates potential casualties, fatalities, and fallout.The toolgives ajarringperspective on the Hiroshima bomb by allowing users to superimpose Little Boy's blast radius over a variety of familiar locations. In Washington, DC, a 15-kiloton bomb, with an explosive yield equal to 15,000 tons of TNT, would kill 126,000 people and injure over 190,000 more:A 15-kiloton nuclear weapon has a fireball radius of over 500 feet,giving the most destructive section of the explosiona widthof over four Manhattan blocks.If detonated over 20th St and 5th Avenue in Manhattan, the air-blast radius of Little Boy-sized devicea zone where increased air pressure would crush most buildings and where the casualty rate would be in the 100% neighborhoodwould span fromthe the East Village to the southern edge of Midtown. The bomb would kill an estimated 445,000 people.Another look:The bomb's enormity can also be glimpsed by dropping it on mid-sized cities. Little Boy would irradiate the entirety of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, and kill 32,000 people out of a population of around 500,000.The examples of Hiroshima and the attack on Nagasaki 3 days laterconvinced the world of the bomb's destructive potential and createda still-vital sense of urgency among diplomats, politicians, military planner, and activists for ensuring that atomic devicesarenever used in war.But there are still nearly 16,000 nuclear weapons on earth, manyof which have a far higher explosive yield than Little Boy. It's been 70 years since the last nuclear strike. But ifthat streak ever comes to an end, the cost would beunimaginable.Hiroshima ended up being the second-to-last offensive nuclear strikein historybut only so far.SEE ALSO:70 years ago today: The moment the US deployed the most powerful weapon known to manJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: How the US military spends its billions
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