The most powerful nuclear bomb in history was dropped by the Soviet Union above a remote island in October of 1961 that was felt hundreds of miles away. The bomb, which was called RDS-220 or “Tsar Bomba”, was detonated about 2.5 miles above the Novaya Zemlya islands, north of the Arctic Circle.

An aerial bomber brought the 27-ton, 26-foot-long weapon over the islands before dropping it by a parachute. When the bomb detonated, the explosion was so strong that it caused the plane to drop 3,000 feet before the pilot could steady it.

Even though it was detonated a couple of miles above the ground, the island was still left flat and bare. The flash from the bomb was seen for over 600 miles and its massive heat was felt up to 160 miles away, capable of causing third degree burns as far as 62 miles from the detonation site.

(Not Tsar Bomba)

Even the huge mushroom cloud stretched so high up that it almost reached the edge of space (it reached an altitude of 210,000 feet). Incredibly, nobody died from the detonation.

In July of 1961, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the construction of the bomb. He had initially ordered a 100-megaton nuclear weapon, but the engineers gave him a 50-megaton weapon instead. To put this into better perspective, the “Tsar Bomba” was thousands of times more powerful than the nukes that were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Another jaw-dropping comparison was that the United States’ extremely powerful nuclear weapon that was tested in 1954 called “Castle Bravo” was 15 megatons.

No bomb even close to being as powerful as “Tsar Bomba” has ever been tested again. Although, a lot of that probably has to do with the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that the Soviet  Union, Great Britain, and United States all signed in August of 1963. According to the treaty, nuclear weapons were not allowed to be tested in outer space, in the atmosphere, or underwater.

(Not Tsar Bomba)

There have, however, been several atomic tests that have occurred underground with one example being North Korea who conducted such a powerful test in 2018 that a mountain near the testing site (Mount Mantap) actually moved and compressed after the explosion.

Now, getting back to the Soviet Union’s “Tsar Bomba”, Russia’s state atomic agency called Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation declassified a 40-minute video of the bomb – from the manufacturing process, to being dropped via a parachute and the gigantic mushroom cloud. The video can be seen here on YouTube with the countdown to the bomb being detonated starting at around the 22:20 mark.

In 2000, Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet premier, said:  “In the 1980s, you warned about the unprecedented dangers of nuclear weapons and took very daring steps to reverse the arms race. Models made by Russian and American scientists showed that a nuclear war would result in a nuclear winter that would be extremely destructive to all life on Earth; the knowledge of that was a great stimulus to us, to people of honor and morality, to act in that situation.” So, what, exactly, is a nuclear winter Let’s see. We’ll begin with the aforementioned decade of the 1980s, which was when the concept – and the doom-filled implications – of a nuclear winter really began to take shape on a large scale. Today’s nuclear weapons have the ability to obliterate entire cities and millions of people in seconds. Compared to nuclear weapons of the 21^st century, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were mere toys. Bringing worldwide civilization to an end is something that is all too easily within our grasp, should we be so foolish to one day go down that nightmarish path. But, it’s not just the immediate effects of a  nuclear war that we have to be concerned about. There are the long-term effects, too. Yes, trying to protect oneself from both the initial blast and the soon-to-be-everywhere deadly radiation would be absolutely paramount to one’s survival. There is, however, something else to be aware of.

Such would be the massive scale of destruction in a nuclear war, millions upon millions of tons of dust, dirt, soot, and the ash-like remains of probably five or six billion people, buildings and more would be sucked into the huge firestorms erupting all across the quickly-shattering globe. In no time at all, the dense, cloudy, worldwide masses would quickly reach the stratosphere, which is situated around six to eight miles above the planet’s surface. And that’s when the poor, irradiated and burned survivors of the war would have something else to deal with. As if billions dead and killer-radiation weren’t enough to have on one’s plate. Such would be the almost unfathomable amount of sooty materials quickly overwhelming the planet’s entire stratosphere, we would see a sudden and devastating change in temperatures. We’re not talking about the temperature merely dropping. We’re talking about it plummeting. As in almost off the scale, as the rays and heat of the sun become systematically blocked out, all as a result of our stupidity and recklessness.

We also have this from the committee: “The consequences of any such changes in atmospheric state would have to be added to the already sobering list of relatively well-understood consequences of nuclear war…Long-term atmospheric consequences imply additional problems that are not easily mitigated by prior preparedness and that are not in harmony with any notion of rapid postwar restoration of social structure. They also create an entirely new threat to populations far removed from target areas, and suggest the possibility of additional major risks for any nation that itself initiates use of nuclear weapons, even if nuclear retaliation should somehow be limited.”

In light of all the above, to what extent would the Earth’s temperature be lowered? A chilling – no pun intended – statement comes from Dr. Alan Robock, a professor of climatology in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University. An expert in this field, Dr. Robock says: “A minor nuclear war (such as between India and Pakistan or in the Middle East), with each country using 50 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs as airbursts on urban areas, could produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history. This is only 0.03% of the explosive power of the current global arsenal.” Consider carefully, Dr. Robock’s words. He makes it very clear the survivors of a nuclear war would experience, “…climate change unprecedented in recorded human history.” And all this with only 0.03% of the world’s nuclear weapons being used. Imagine, then, the effects if all of the remaining, massive percentage was used – and not just in the India-Pakistan area, or in the Middle East, but just about everywhere. It’s not at all inconceivable that we would see our world plunged into nothing less than a full Ice Age, never mind just a nuclear winter.

Today’s Jeopardy category is “Portals to Hell.” Remember, your answer must be in the form of a question. For $500, this Gateway to Hell is growing at a frightening rate of 30 meters (98 feet) per year.

“Washington D.C.!”

Sorry, that wasn’t a question.

“What is the Batagaika crater, located in the ice-covered Chersky Range in northeastern Siberia?”

Correct! It’s summer in Siberia, a season which has actually become more noticeable due to climate change. It means that Siberians are shedding clothing and the ground is shedding permafrost. In some areas, the end result is exploding pingos – ice-and-dirt-covered methane pockets whose heat-induced blasts leave large sinkholes behind. However, the Batagaika crater, about 660 km (410 miles) northeast of the city of Yakutsk, has been around for some time – long enough to grow to 1 km (.652) in length and 100 meters (328 feet) deep, and acquire the name “Gateway to Hell.”

Batagaika crater NASA image)

The Batagaika crater began forming in the 1960 when forests near the Batagaika river were cleared and permafrost began melting faster than normal. While paleontologists loved its massive exposure of Ice Age animal fossils, the steep cliffs and landslides make erosion occur even faster and land is dragged into the Gateway to Hell at an accelerated and dangerous pace, threatening everything in its path, including the homes, livestock and scenery of the local Yakutians, who first named this creation of invading resource-stealers the “Gateway to Hell.”

“The catch with Batagai is that although it survived multiple episodes of warming in the past, where the warming has been natural – in the last 50 or 60 years human disturbances have destabilised this ancient permafrost. 

“So, I guess the message is that we need to be very careful.”

Geology professor Julian Murton of the University of Sussex told the BBC that a mere 60 years of warming has exposed permafrost from 650,000 years ago — the oldest of its kind in Eurasia and the second oldest in the world. Needless to say, that’s not good.

Growth of the Batagaika crater NASA image)

“Though this may sound so far away from our daily concerns and daily life, actually it’s not just curiosity that drives the Batagai research. It’s also the applicability of the results to the ongoing environmental changes – because the past is the key to the future. And by understanding the processes that occurred in the past and their aftermath, we can adapt to the ongoing future.”

Is it too late to close the Gateway to Hell? Verkhoyansk in northeastern Siberian recorded the Arctic’s highest ever temperature this summer — 100 F (38C) – the temperature of hell to Siberians. Is having wood for your fireplace or end tables worth widening the mouth of hell?

This story continues to appear every summer, and never gets better … only bigger. How long will it be before the Batagaika crater reaches big cities … Moscow … China … India … Europe … beyond? Does humanity stop it with sandbags … or climate change reversal?

Please give your answer in the form of a question.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on the world thus far with more than 16.5 million people affected and over 650,000 deaths. It’s been reported that the virus was transmitted to humans from bats and a new study has revealed an even more incredible fact about COVID-19. Apparently the virus has been circulating in bats for up to 70 years.

In a new research project where experts looked into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, they found that it evolved in bats (specifically the horseshoe bat) all the way back to 1948. Scientists that were led by the Pennsylvania State University compared SARS-CoV-2 to its closest relative in bats called RaTG13 (they are 96% similar to each other) and they found that both viruses have the same ancestor although it’s still unclear as to when SARS-CoV-2 split away from the other types of coronaviruses.

According to their studies, the scientists came up with three separate dates as to when the virus split from their ancestor called sarbecoviruses – 1948, 1969 and 1982 which indicates “that the lineage giving rise to SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating unnoticed in bats for decades,” the researchers stated.

Horseshoe bat

The experts mentioned that since the virus has been circulating in bats for between 40 and 70 years, there may be other coronaviruses out there that could potentially infect humans. As a matter of fact, I wrote an article back in April of this year that detailed six new coronaviruses that had been identified in bats. (The article can be read here.)

COVID-19 enters the human body by its receptor-binding domain (RBD) grabbing a hold of the ACE2 receptor in human cells which allows it to attack the body’s defensive mechanisms that would normally fight off the virus. In fact, SARS-CoV-2 is a thousand times more powerful than the RaTG13 virus at latching onto ACE2 receptors in humans. Interestingly, other sarbecoviruses haven’t had RBD and the closest thing they have found resided in pangolins although it isn’t believed that they were the ones that transmitted it to humans.

David L. Robertson, who is a professor of computational virology at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research as well as an author of the study, explained, “SARS-CoV-2’s receptor-binding domain sequence has so far only been found in a few pangolin viruses,” adding, “While it is possible that pangolins may have acted as an intermediate host facilitating transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans, no evidence exists to suggest that pangolin infection is a requirement for bat viruses to cross into humans.” “Instead, our research suggests that SARS-CoV-2 likely evolved the ability to replicate in the upper respiratory tract of both humans and pangolins.”

While bats are immune to coronavirus, it is still highly infectious to humans and has proved to be incredibly deadly. Maciej Boni, who is an associate professor of biology at Penn State and another author of the study, revealed that this pandemic “will not be our last”, adding that “Coronaviruses have genetic material that is highly recombinant, meaning different regions of the virus’s genome can be derived from multiple sources.”

Four “sister” species of the horseshoe bat have been discovered in Africa and researchers are hoping that by studying them and the viruses they carry, they will be able to help experts properly prepare for any other possible coronavirus pandemics in the future.

For those of a certain age, the name “Jacques Cousteau” bring back memories of “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,” a popular documentary series running from 1968-1975 and on in reruns, starring the craggy French scuba diver and explorer and his boat, the Calypso. Those shows occasionally featured his young grandson, Fabien Cousteau. Fabien is now a not-so-craggy aquanaut, conservationist and filmmaker in his own right. While billionaire ‘explorers’ like Musk, Bezos and Branson have their sights on space travel and space stations, Fabien is following in his grandfather’s wet footsteps and looking at the ocean floor as the place to save humanity – specifically, in an undersea version of the International Space Station. Is our future in flippers?

Jacques Yves Cousteau

“Ocean exploration is 1,000 times more important than space exploration for — selfishly — our survival, for our trajectory into the future. It’s our life support system. It is the very reason why we exist in the first place.”

Good point, Fabien. In a recent press release, Cousteau and his partner, industrial designer Yves Béhar, describe PROTEUS™ – a two-story combination of cylinders and spheres which will be powered by solar, wind and thermal energy and house laboratories, personal quarters, medical facilities, food preparation areas, a video production facility (of course – runs in the family) and the first underwater greenhouse.

Fabien Cousteau’s PROTEUS™. Concept designs by Yves Béhar and fuseproject.

(From The Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center)

Cousteau sees the similarities between space and underwater living and wants to take the success of the ISS and put it in the Caribbean Sea with new features to make the isolated life of up to 12 aquanauts productive, comfortable and healthy. He studied previous underwater research habitats and spent 31 days in the 400-square-foot Aquarius off the Florida Keys, which was originally built by NOAA and saved by Florida International University after the NOAA lost government funding. Which brings us to why Béhar and Cousteau has been talking to CNN and other media sites.

“Like all big dreams, it will need further development. But one of the ways we’ve done fundraising in the last few months is by sharing this concept and sharing this dream.”

Proteus is still in the concept stage and will remain there until Cousteau and Béhar raise a measly $135 million. So far, all he has is a team and a great website at The Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center, where more details on the PROTEUS™ are available and donations can be made.

Doesn’t that sound like a better solution to our problems than waiting for Elon to take us to Mars?

Grandpa Jacques would be proud.

(Feature image of Fabien Cousteau’s PROTEUS™ from Concept designs by Yves Béhar and fuseproject at The Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center)