This photo shows the detonation of a U.S. nuclear device codenamed Umbrella, set off on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands as part of the Hardtack test series, and specifically designed to test radiation contamination on ships exposed to underwater nuclear blasts. The eight kiloton explosion threw a column of water 5,000 feet high, along with whatever unlucky fish, dolphins, and whales happened to be in the vicinity. Just more collateral damage in the ongoing arms race, and certainly not the last. The bomb went off today in 1958.

The explosion captured in these two photos is the Nutmeg nuclear test conducted on Eneman Island, part of the Marshall Islands chain, in the South Pacific between Hawaii and the Philippines. The first shows the bomb just after detonation surrounded by what is known as a Wilson Cloud, moisture condensed out of humid air by shock waves. The second photo shows the explosion about fifteen seconds later, with the obscuring moisture burned off. These images were taken from a collection of movies declassified by the U.S. and released by the National Laboratory in March. Everyone seems much more worried about nuclear weapons of late. Well, guess what? It was never a good idea to stop worrying. News outlets always say global warming is the greatest threat to human existence. It isn't. These are. And they will be as long as they exist. The images date from today, 1958

This is one of the more famous images of a nuclear detonation, a shot of the American blast codenamed Dakota, which was part of Operation Redwing, conducted at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, today in 1956. The layered effect you see is sometimes called a Wilson cloud, and consists of water vapor condensed out of the atmosphere by rarefaction, an aftereffect of a shockwave traveling through humid air. In order to perform tests on Bikini Atoll, about 200 Micronesian inhabitants were forced to relocate. They and their descendants hope to return one day, but as of now their home is still too contaminated with radiation. 

Photo showing the detonation of Seminole B, a 13.7 kiloton nuclear device detonated June 6, 1956 by the U.S. as part of Operation Redwing, a series of nuclear blasts on Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls, Marshall Islands, South Pacific. 

Photo of the American nuclear test Baker, July 23, 1946, part of the series Operation Crossoroads, staged in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia. The test was designed to measure a nuke’s effectiveness on naval vessels (as well as about 400 live pigs and goats aboard the ships). Surprise—it was very effective.     

Codenamed Castle Bravo, this is the explosion resulting from the first U.S. test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb. It happened fifty-five years ago this month, on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, Micronesia.