miles distant.
Trees swayed and snapped violently as the wave
thundered over the desolate islands~-sand, rocks and dust would have
Following the shock wave came
unearthly winds several hundred miles per hour near the center and
70 to 100 miles per hour several miles away which stirred the lagoon's
waters into a froth and stinging spray like that during a full scale
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literally "jumped" into the air.
typhoon, blowing away sand and soil cover of the islands and flinging
waves breaking on tne reef back into the sea.
Some time after the
fireball had risen, these winds ceased and "“afterwinds" began flowing
toward the forming mushroom cloud, following the path of the rising
superheaded air.
Within minutes these "afterwinds" would increase to
near gale velocity, some distance from the center, and the remaining
trees on the islands would be bent toward the explosion.
The lagoon
once again was whipped into a frenzy by the freakish wind, At the same time
awesome waves towering more than 100 feet high would have rolled out,
whicn--even though diminished by distance--would be large enough to
completely wash over whole islands on Bikini's rim.
During its origins, "Bravo" would have also pulverized and lifted
into the sky an immense portion of the Bikini reef, along with seawater
vaporized by the blast.
Since "Bravo" was roughly three times more
powerful than Mike, it undoubtedly lifted several hundred million tons
of matter into the air immediately, or through the action of the
“afterwinds" which sucked matter up through the base of the column.
During the period of the fireball's rise, the final 10 percent of the
bomb's energy was expended in residual radiation which was deposited
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