Operation Ivy, 1 November 1952 - picture of the day

The detonation of the thermonuclear weapon, nicknamed Mike, yielded 10 megatons of energy, 500 times that of the Nagasaki bomb in 1945. The explosion left behind a crater almost 2 kilometres wide and 50 metres deep where the paradise island had once been. Images like these were used as powerful propaganda tools to show the USSR that the Americans were a power to be reckoned with but instilled a sense of paranoia and fear of a nuclear holocaust in the wider public for many years to come. Many of the photographers and film-makers who recorded these tests are said to have died prematurely after exposing themselves to massive radioactive fallout
Illustration: Photograph: Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images