Aerial view of Nevada’s devastation from nuclear bomb testing

See Nevada’s Hellish Nuclear Moonscape From Abovehttp://gizmodo.com/see-nevadas-hellish-nuclear-moonscape-from-above-1516055510Much has been written about the Nevada Test Site—aka the Nevada Testing Grounds—since the last bomb was detonated in the early 1990s. In fact, it’s probably one of the most storied sites in American science.

But, to me, it’s always been hard to get a sense for exactly how big the testing grounds were, and what kind of impact these tests had on the landscape outside of Las Vegas.

The data visualization team as Esri recently set out to make an interactive that would convey the sheer magnitude of the project—and the incredible scars it left on a 1,360 square mile patch of Nevada desert.

Their new site, America’s Nuclear Moonscape, walks you through the hundreds of detonations in chronological order, showing you where and why the bombs went off:…. it was the tests carried out on this strip of flatlands that spurred the American public to cry out in protest, in the 1990s—eventually leading to the widespread reforms that still protect us today.

February 7, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized