National Test Exercise - Operation Ivy

National Test Exercise - Operation Ivy

Item Information

Title:
National Test Exercise - Operation Ivy
Description:
Hydrogen Detonation
Creator:
Federal Civil Defense Administration. Region I. 1951-1958
Photographer:
United States. Air Force
Name on Item:
U.S. Air Force
Date:
April 5, 1954
Format:
Photographs
Genre:
Photographic prints
Location:
National Archives at Boston
Box ID: 05 (shelf locator)
Collection (local):
Record Group 304: Records of the Office of Civil Defense and Defense Mobilization
Series:
Civil Defense Photographs, 1951-1961
Subjects:
Nuclear weapons testing
Nuclear weapons
Civil defense
Operation Ivy, Marshall Islands, 1952
Places:
Marshall Islands
Extent:
1 photograph : print ; 8.5 x 11 in.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/h128rw47z
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States
Unrestricted
This work is in the public domain under a Creative Commons No Rights Reserved License (CC0).
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Notes:
Title from accompanying material.
Text from item: Artist's conception of the giant mushroom cloud from the MIKE detonation. Nearing its maximum 12 minutes after Zero, the cloud stem pushed upward 25 miles, deep into the stratosphere, while the mushroom portion, 10 miles high, spread for 100 miles along the base of the stratosphere. Operation IVY was conducted by Joint Task Force 132, for the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense, at the AEC's Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands in the fall of 1952. Operation IVY involved an experimental thermonuclear or "hydrogen" detonation. The thermonuclear device, code-named MIKE, caused the greatest destructive effects ever noted from a single explosive device. The particular test island (ELUGELAB) of the atoll completely disappeared. The resulting nuclear "fireball" was the largest ever produced. Joint Task Force 132 was commanded by Major General Percy W. Clarkson, USA. Dr. Alvin Graves, of AEC's Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, was Scientific Deputy to the Task Force Commander. Scientific and military tests were conducted by a Scientific Task Group, supported by Army, Navy and Air Force Task Groups. Photos #1 through #18 in this series were prepared by the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense. They are issued by the Federal Civil Defense Administration because as President Eisenhower has said, "If the peoples of the world are to conduct an intelligent search for peace, they must be armed with the significant facts of today's existence."
Notes (date):
Date from item or accompanying material.
Accession #:
824935
Identifier:
0906