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Operation Crossroads Research Papers

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Operation Crossroads was the first of many nuclear tests that the United States carried out after the end of World War II. The test was executed in two different phases, Able and Baker, and Able was the first phase of the operation. The tests were performed on the island of Bikini Atoll, which is a part of the Pacific island chain of the Marshall Islands. The tests damaged the ecosystem so bad on Bikini Atoll that people are still not allowed to visit the island to this day. Operation Crossroads was divided into two separate stages, Baker and Able; these tests were so deadly that the third phase was canceled, and people began to reconsider the ways atomic weapons were tested in regards to the people of Bikini Atoll. The first phase of the test was codenamed Able, and it was conducted on July 1, 1946. Gilda was the name given to the atomic bomb that would be dropped from a B-29 onto the target fleet of abandoned warships. The bomb missed its intended mark by about half of a mile, but still created enough force to sink five ships and spray more with radiation. …show more content…

The atomic bomb used in this test was identical to the bomb used during the first test, but the variable that the researchers changed was where the bomb was detonated. This atomic weapon was suspended ninety feet underwater, and the results on the fleet drastically changed. When this weapon was detonated it sent a mushroom cloud of water into the air that was over six thousand feet high and two thousand feet wide. The force of the explosion was so great that it threw the warship Arkansas out of the water and pinned it to the ocean floor upside down. The test also sent tsunamis to Bikini Atoll, which was about three miles away from the test site. The fleet of abandoned ships were coated with so much radioactive water that the cleaning crew were told to halt their efforts for fear of them contracting radiation

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