- [Narrator] Explosions, both natural and artificial,
have literally shaped our world.
When talking about the largest explosions,
there must be a few limitations.
Most notably, the explosions on this list,
will be limited to Earth bound explosions.
Technically, the Big Bang is the largest explosion
of all time,
followed by a host of other solar events.
But these are not really what people are looking for
when they think about the largest explosions.
As a point of comparison,
Russia has claimed that its father of all bombs,
detonated in 2007,
having a blast yield of 50 tons of TNT.
If true, it will be the most powerful
nonnuclear bomb ever built.
This detonation doesn't even come close
to making this list.
These are the 10 largest explosions of all time.
Number 10 is the Halifax Explosion.
Let's turn to the 1917 Halifax Explosion.
During this year,
a ship containing explosives
intended for the frontline's of the First World War,
collided with another ship,
lost power and drifted into the Halifax harbor
and exploded.
It killed almost 2,000 people
and destroyed most of the city.
That blast has an estimated yield of 2.9 kilotons of TNT,
more than 50 times the power
of the father of all bombs.
The blast was the largest man-made explosion
prior to the development of nuclear weapons.
Nearly all structures within
an 800 meter radius were obliterated.
The compression wave from the blast knocked trees,
twisted iron nails, and shattered windows.
This event goes to show
that conventional explosives can be quite deadly.
Number nine is the Minor Scale and Misty Picture,
which were a nonnuclear test performed in the 1980s.
These tests were meant to simulate
nuclear blasts with conventional explosives.
The purpose of these tests
was to determine the performance
and survivability of weapon systems
and vehicles in a simulated nuclear detonation.
Both of these detonations used ammonium nitrate explosive,
equals to four kilotons of TNT.
Number eight is Hiroshima.
With a devastation caused by the dropping
of Little Boy on Hiroshima,
it might be surprising to know it's blast yield
was only 15 kilotons,
a mere five times the power of the Halifax explosion.
Hiroshima is seared into our consciousness
because of the loss of life.
While future nuclear devices were far more powerful,
only the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
targeted populated areas.
Almost everything within a one mile radius
was completely destroyed,
and a fireball burned in over 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
More than 100,000 people were killed in Hiroshima,
not counting those who died from injuries
in the following week.
Number seven is the Tunguska event.
In 1908, an explosion broke out in the isolated
hinterlands of Russia.
Its explosive yield is estimated to have been
somewhere around 10 to 15 megatons of TNT,
making it a thousand times more powerful
than the bombing of Hiroshima
during the Second World War.
It's generally accepted that a meteor perhaps,
150 to 300 feet in diameter, exploded in midair,
flattening 770 square miles of forest
but leaving no crater
as the meteor completed disintegrated
several miles above the Earth's surface.
40 miles away, people were thrown to the ground,
and felt as if their clothing was on fire.
But due to the remote nature of this event,
no loss of life was recorded.
Number six is the Tsar Bomba.
The world's largest nuclear event
came in the form of the Tsar Bomba,
which boasted an explosive yield
comparable of 50 megatons of TNT.
Theoretically, the bomb could yield 100 megatons,
but this was never tested on account of radiation dangers,
and the inability of pilots delivering the explosive,
to escape the weapon's blast sound.
When the Tsar Bomba was tested,
a 35 mile high mushroom cloud
could be seen 100 miles away.
Buildings many more hundreds of miles away
were damaged and destroyed by the blast.
It's test on the 30th of October in 1961
remains the most powerful human-made explosion in history.
Number five is Krakatoa.
There's some debate as to what
the biggest volcanic eruptions in recorded history are,
as most occurred before the advent
of modern measuring equipment.
However, the next four are certainly among the largest.
Erupting in 1883,
the Krakatoa eruption is the largest eruption
in recent times.
With an estimated yield of 150 to 200 megatons,
its eruption triggered 100 foot tower tsunamis.
The sound of explosions could be heard 3,000 miles away
and shock waves could be measured for days,
even on 19th century seismic recording technology.
World temperatures measurably dropped
and weather patterns were disrupted for years.
Number four is Lake Taupo.
Lake Taupo, New Zealand,
sits in the caldera of an extremely powerful volcano,
which has repeatedly erupted
over the last 27,000 years.
Its most recent eruption,
probably occurring in the year 186 CE
and yielding about 200 megatons,
is one of the most powerful eruptions in recorded history,
yet not nearly as powerful as its previous blasts.
This most recent eruption
threw so much ash into the air,
that observers from the century in both Rome and China,
recorded that the sky had turned a dark red.
Number three is the Thera eruption.
The modern island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea,
is what's left of Thera,
a volcano which exploded
with a force of 600 megatons of TNT.
The event happened roughly between 1600 and 1500 BCE,
and may have contributed to the fall
of Minoan civilization on Crete.
The eruption created large tsunamis,
which devastated coastal settlements
and the ships on which Minoans depended
as major sea traders.
It's not entirely clear what happened
to Minoan civilization after this eruption,
but it is clear that their way of life
did not survive the eruption.
Number two is Mount Tambora.
At it's height, Mount Tambora in Indonesia
stood over 14,000 feet tall.
After it's eruption in 1815,
it stood just under 9,000 feet.
The 800 megaton blast is unargueably
the biggest eruption in all of recorded history.
More than 10,000 people were killed in the eruption,
with another 60,000 starving to death,
as the ejected destroyed the local farming.
Crops and live stock died to a lesser extent
all over the world,
resulting in widespread famine.
The blast could be heard 1,000 miles away
and ash fall reached at least half that distance.
It blackened the sky for two days
for hundreds of miles.
The eruption column reached 27 miles into the sky
and it rained ash for several days.
And number one is the KT extinction event.
No explosion comes anywhere close
to the KT extinction event,
which killed 3/4 of all species on Earth,
including dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Estimates put its yield at 100 teratons,
billions of times stronger
than the blast of Hiroshima.
An asteroid anywhere from three to 10 miles in diameter,
struck the Gulf of Mexico,
creating an undersea impact crater over 100 miles wide.
The generated heat touched off world wide firestorms.
The resulting dust cloud blocked out
the sun for months or even years,
killing plants and the creatures depended on them.
Sulfuric acid was released into the atmosphere
producing acid rain,
which might have been as strong as battery acid.
Even occurring so far in the past,
this event was so devastating
that the evidence of its occurrence
millions of years ago is irrefutable.
For more top lists just like this,
be sure to leave a like
and subscribe if you haven't already,
and don't forget to check out our other lists.
And thanks for watching and thanks for learning.