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Top 10 Freaking Amazing Explosions

2010-03-26 · list · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Science & nature) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: recurring series

Closing Top 10 week, Hank ranks ten explosions by size, from the 1654 Delft gunpowder blast through the MOAB and nuclear bombs to the Tsar Bomba, all dwarfed by the Yellowstone eruption 640,000 years ago.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Top 10 week was fun; reaction to John's frog and exploding ant; explosions as the topic

  • ★★ Hank says Top 10 week has turned out to be quite fun and hopes they do it again sometime. (hedged) — 00:00:00
  • ★ Reacting to John's list, Hank marvels at stabbing someone with your own broken bone but thinks the exploding ant deserved first place. (hedged) — 00:00:04
  • ★★ John's list got Hank thinking about the biggest and most awe-inspiring explosions of all time, which he lists in rising size. — 00:00:11

00:00:17 — Pre-nuclear explosions: Delft 1654, Halifax, the East River and British Columbia islands, the WWI mine under German lines

  • ★★ Hank says the first large man-made explosion was in Delft in 1654, when 30 tons of stored gunpowder blew up and pretty much destroyed the town. — 00:00:17
  • ★★ Hank says the largest accidental explosion came when two ships collided off Halifax, one full of WWI explosives; it caused a tsunami and killed over 2,000. — 00:00:33
  • ★★ Hank says the second-largest pre-nuclear explosion destroyed an island in New York's East River for shipping; a similar 1950s blast in British Columbia was filmed. — 00:00:54
  • ★★ Hank says the largest pre-nuclear explosion, from British mines dug under German lines in WWI, killed around 10,000 Germans; a British general predicted changing geography, not history. — 00:01:12

00:01:36 — Weapons: the MOAB, Fat Man and Little Boy, Ivy King

  • ★★ Hank says the MOAB, the largest non-nuclear weapon designed by the US, has roughly the force of 12 tons of TNT and can destroy a 10-city-block radius. — 00:01:36
  • ★★ Hank says Fat Man and Little Boy, dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are the only nuclear weapons used in war and roughly 1,000 times bigger than the MOAB. — 00:02:04
  • ★★ Hank says Ivy King was the largest fission bomb of all time, roughly 30 times the Hiroshima bomb. — 00:02:13

00:02:21 — Tunguska, the Tsar Bomba and the Yellowstone caldera eruption; Yellowstone is due

  • ★★ Hank says no one is sure what caused the 1908 Tunguska event, stronger than 1,000 Hiroshima bombs; the leading theory is a small comet exploding before impact. — 00:02:21
  • ★★ Hank says the 50-megaton Tsar Bomba was probably about five times the Tunguska event, roughly 4,000 Hiroshima bombs. (hedged) — 00:02:41
  • ★★★ Hank says the largest explosion in recent geological history left Yellowstone a volcanic caldera; it last erupted 640,000 years ago with about 17,000 times the Tsar Bomba's force. — 00:02:55
  • ★ Hank says Yellowstone is a mere 100 miles from where he is sitting. — 00:03:05
  • ★★ Hank says geologists say Yellowstone is due for another eruption, and he lives way too close to it. — 00:03:29

00:03:36 — Hope I freaked you out; nuclear-war era and a bomb shelter; links to the other top-10 videos; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank can hardly imagine living when global nuclear war was feasible; even not living in the '50s, he wants to build a bomb shelter. (playful) — 00:03:41
  • ★ Hank points viewers who missed the other two Top 10 videos to an annotation link. — 00:03:48

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Yellowstone National Park

Also: Concepts: Camponotus saundersi · hairy frog

Places: British Columbia · Delft · East River · Halifax, Nova Scotia · Hiroshima · Nagasaki

Events: Delft Explosion · Halifax Explosion · Ivy King · Mines in the Battle of Messines · Tunguska event · World War I

Products: Fat Man · GBU-43/B MOAB · Little Boy · Tsar Bomba

Also centred on Yellowstone National Park: Yellowstone: The Terror of Change

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