Thursday, July 8, 2010

Animated Map of the 2,053 Nuclear Explosions Between 1945-1998

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto created an animated map which shows the 2,053 nuclear tests which occurred between 1945 and 1998.  The final count (which does not include the two North Korean tests after 1998) is: US (1032), Russia (715), China (45), Great Britain (45), France (210), India (4), and Pakistan (2).  

Each test is represented by a metronomic blip, which, in the end, creates an eerie rhythm reminiscent of the exchange between humans and the alien spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  The 14 minute long video begins slowly--illuminating the first test in New Mexico, followed by the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945.  The blips incrementally accelerate, and by the late 1950s the map lights up with numerous tests between the U.S. and Russia.


4 comments:

  1. Very interesting graphic and audio representation.

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  2. You must add the one on September 21, 1979, and should know to whom to attribute it. In fact, there were 3, not 1.

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  3. Unfortunately, you would have to take that inconsistency up with the artist, Isao Hashimoto. Good eye, though!

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  4. July 16 is the anniversary of Trinity, the first atomic explosion ever. MacGregor Eddy
    www.macgregoreddy.com

    ReplyDelete

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