What was bigger hiroshima or nagasaki

The explosion affected a total area of approximately 43 square miles. About 8. Many roads and rail lines escaped major damage. In some areas electricity was not knocked out, and fire breaks created over the last several months helped to prevent the spread of fires to the south. Although the destruction at Nagasaki has generally received less worldwide attention than that at Hiroshima, it was extensive nonetheless. Almost everything up to half a mile from ground zero was completely destroyed, including even the earthquake-hardened concrete structures that had sometimes survived at comparable distances at Hiroshima.

According to a Nagasaki Prefectural report "men and animals died almost instantly" within 1 kilometer 0. Almost all homes within a mile and a half were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper instantly burst into flames as far away as 10, feet from ground zero. Of the 52, homes in Nagasaki, 14, were destroyed and 5, more seriously damaged.

Only 12 percent of the homes escaped unscathed. The official Manhattan Engineer District report on the attack termed the damage to the two Mitsubishi plants "spectacular. Fire-fighting efforts were hampered by water line breaks, and six weeks later the city was still suffering from a shortage of water.

Navy officer who visited the city in mid-September reported that, even over a month after the attack, "a smell of death and corruption pervades the place. Estimates of total deaths in Hiroshima have generally ranged between , and ,, out of a population of , Tens of thousands died immediately and many more in the days and months that followed.

Due to the hilly geography of Nagasaki and the bombing focus being away from the city centre, the excessive damage from the bombing was limited to the Urakami Valley and part of downtown Nagasaki. The centre of Nagasaki, the harbour, and the historic district were shielded from the blast by the hills around the Urakami River.

The nuclear bombing did nevertheless prove devastating, with approximately Estimates of casualties from Nagasaki have generally ranged between 50, and ,, with many dying instantaneously and others dying slowly and agonisingly as a result of burns and radiation. These two events still resonate to this day and serve as the greatest warning of the devastating effects of nuclear weapons. As well as the high death toll, those that survived the initial detonation and firestorms quickly became ill with radiation poisoning with symptoms ranging from severe burns, hair loss, nausea and bleeding.

Long after the bombings, survivors were still suffering from increased susceptibility to leukaemia, cataracts and malignant tumours with many also being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder later in life. This suffering goes beyond the survivors. Let's nerd out over nuclear together. These are the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, and let's hope it stays that way, because some of the nuclear weapons today are more than 3, times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The Little Boy and the Fat Man were atomic bombs, or fission bombs, which set off a chain reaction of nuclear fission. The atomic nuclei of radioactive materials were split to create different elements, which releases a large amount of energy, splitting more atoms as a result and producing a destructive explosion.

In the Little Boy, a bullet-like projectile made of uranium was fired at a core of the same substance to set off the chain reaction. The Fat Man, on the other hand, used a core of plutonium that was ignited with thousands of pounds of conventional explosives, again setting off a chain reaction of nuclear fission. In a thermonuclear weapon, often called a hydrogen bomb, the fission process is only the beginning. Modern nuclear weapons, such as the United States' B83 bombs , use a similar fission process to what is used in atomic bombs, but that initial energy is then ignites a fusion reaction in a secondary core of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium.

Since the bombs were detonated at a height of some metres above the ground, very little of the fission products were deposited on the ground beneath. Some deposition occurred however in areas near to each city, owing to local rainfall occurring soon after the explosions. This happened at positions a few kilometres to the east of Nagasaki, and in areas to the west and north-west of Hiroshima. For the most part, however, these fission products were carried high into the upper atmosphere by the heat generated in the explosion itself.

The majority would have decayed by the time they landed around the globe. In Hiroshima, of a resident civilian population of , it was estimated that 45, died on the first day and a further 19, during the subsequent four months. In Nagasaki, out of a population of ,, on the first day 22, died and another 17, within four months. Unrecorded deaths of military personnel and foreign workers may have added considerably to these figures.

It is uncertain what proportion of these , deaths, or of the further deaths in military personnel, were due to radiation exposure rather than to the very high temperatures and blast pressures caused by the explosions — 15 kilotons at Hiroshima and 25 kilotons at Nagasaki.

From the estimated radiation levels, however, it is apparent that radiation alone would not have been enough cause death in most of those exposed beyond a kilometre of the ground zero below the bombs. Most deaths were from blast injuries or burns rather than the radiation. Beyond 1. In comparison, during the period of February to August , the US bombing of Japanese cities — notably Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe — by Bs delivered about kilotons of high explosives and incendiaries to urban areas in hundreds of raids, resulting in a large number of deaths and causing widespread destruction.

Some 80, to , people were killed in a single bomber raid on Tokyo. About 80 square kilometers of those four cities was destroyed in ten days during March. Overall 67 Japanese cities were partly destroyed, , people were killed and 5 million more made homeless. To the , deaths from the blast or acute radiation exposure at Hiroshima and Nagasaki have since been added those due to radiation induced cancers and leukaemia, which amounted to some within 30 years, and which may ultimately reach about Some 93, exposed survivors were still being monitored 50 years later.

There was an increase in leukaemia beginning about two years later and peaking at four to six years later, and other cancers beginning about ten years later. There was no evident to suggest an increase in leukaemia at less than mSv acute dose.

At an acute dose of mSv, an increased cancer risk of 1. There was concern about ingestion or inhalation of radionuclides, but fires released far higher levels of non-radioactive carcinogens. Additionally, no genetic damage has been detected in survivors' children, despite careful and continuing investigation by a joint Japanese-US foundation.