Chilling footage shows unimaginable reality of what a nuclear explosion actually looks and sounds like

We're all more than aware about the devastating damage which a nuclear explosion would have on humanity.

From grim films such as BBC's Threads, dystopian public information videos and Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winning biopic Oppenheimer – the harrowing impact of a nuclear strike has been burned into our collective memories for several generations now.

But what does it actually look - and sound - like to witness a nuclear explosion first hand?

Well, depending on where you're stood, it could be anything from instant death to unimaginable pain.

Thankfully for the curious amongst us we don't have to imagine the above scenario, as the US military recorded numerous nuclear tests conducted throughout the 1950s and 60s, meaning we have footage showing the full destructive capability of the weapons.

And no Hollywood dramatisations are needed for this one.

Footage captured from a US nuclear test on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands in 1946 (Keystone/Getty Images)

Back in 2019, CBS released a compilation showing footage released by physicist, Greg Spriggs, who reconstructed and released around 9,000 nuclear test films conducted between 1945 and 1962.

Of course, we're all aware of the familiar mushroom cloud shooting up into the sky after a nuclear weapon is detonated, but that doesn't really do watching footage of the real thing justice.

The images offer a sobering glimpse into what a nuclear apocalypse would look like, from the initial impact to the resulting shockwave and mushroom cloud.

"Temperatures can reach anywhere from 10 million degrees [Kelvin] to about 15 million degrees [Kelvin] initially," Spriggs explained to CBS.

To put that into context, 20°C is equal to 293.15K. So, hot enough to absolutely obliterate you.

Footage released from nuclear test recordings (Youtube/CBS Sunday Morning)

Perhaps even more disconcerting is the sound which a nuclear weapon makes after being detonated.

Given the fireball, shockwave and mushroom cloud anyone unfortunate to get close enough to an explosion witnesses, you'd imagine the accompanying sound to be equally creepy.

However, footage from a 1953 test conducted at Yucca Flat, Nevada, revealed that a nuclear is explosion has three stages, an eerily silent flash followed by a billowing cloud of smoke and then finally a boom.

Take a look at the footage below published by the US National Archives, around the two to five minute mark:

Certainly not something you'd want to see while looking out of the window.

However, not all accounts of survivors even recall hearing the noise, with a 1946 New Yorker report detailing how witnesses called the bomb a 'noiseless flash' before being knocked to the ground.

Following the detonation of atomic weapons in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US in 1945, nuclear weapons have not been used in a combat situation.

And judging by the above footage, we can only hope it stays that way.

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