Explosions are tricky to measure. For one, what are the criteria? And most data on “blasts from the past” are speculation at best. Explosions, both natural and man-made, have caused awe and terror for centuries. And some even caused the extinction of life from earth.
Here I have compiled some of the most powerful explosions the world has ever seen. I hope you will like it and will find it informative.
Gamma ray bursts
Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe. GRB 090423 reached our world even from about 13 billion light-years in 2009. That explosion, which lasted just a little more than a second, released roughly 100 times more energy than our sun will release in its entire 10 billion year lifetime.
Shadow-casting Supernova
The brightest recorded supernova in history was sighted in the constellation Lupus in the spring of 1006. The extraordinary golden explosion now known as SN 1006 took place roughly 7,100 light years away in a fairly nearby part of the galaxy, and was bright enough to cast shadows and read by at night, remaining visible for months in the daytime.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided spectacularly with Jupiter in 1994. The giant planet’s gravitational pull ripped the comet apart into fragments up to 1.8 miles wide, and they struck at 37 miles per second, resulting in 21 visible impacts. It was estimated to have exploded with the force of 6,000 gigatons of TNT.
The K-T Extinction Impact Event
The Age of Dinosaurs ended in a cataclysm roughly 65 million years ago that killed off roughly half of all species on the planet. It is thought to have been by a cosmic impact vast crater roughly 110 miles (wide at Chicxulub on the coast of Mexico may be the blast site.
Mount Tambora
In 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia exploded with the force of roughly 1,000 megatons of TNT, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The blast hurled out roughly 140 billion tons of magma and not only killed more than 71,000 people on the island of Sumbaw. The picture is not of mount Tambora but just a depiction of it.
Tunguska
The mysterious explosion near the Tunguska River in 1908 flattened some 500,000 acres of Siberian forest. Scientists think the blast was caused by a cosmic impact from an asteroid or comet perhaps 65 feet in diameter and 185,000 metric tons in mass. The resulting explosion could have been roughly as strong as four megatons of TNT.
The Trinity Blast
The first atom bomb in history, dubbed “the gadget,” was detonated at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, N.M., in 1945, exploding with a force of roughly 20 kilotons of TNT.
Chernobyl
In 1986, a nuclear reactor exploded at Chernobyl in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. It was the worst nuclear accident in history. The blast, which blew the 2,000-ton lid off the reactor, sent out 400 times more radioactive fallout than the Hiroshima bomb, contaminating more than 77,000 square miles of Europe.
The Halifax Explosion
In 1917, a French cargo ship fully loaded with explosives for World War I accidentally collided with a Belgian vessel in the harbor of Halifax, Canada. It exploded with more force than any man-made explosion before it, equivalent to roughly 3 kilotons of TNT.
The Texas City Disaster
A fire onboard the cargo ship SS Grandcamp docked at Texas City in 1947 detonated 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate, a compound used in fertilizers and high explosives. The explosion blew two planes out of the sky and triggered a chain reaction that detonated nearby refineries as well as a neighboring cargo ship carrying another 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate.
