The Nuclear Bomb Detonated In New Mexico Irradiated 3 Countries

The bomb's developers knew there was going to be a helluva blast. That's about all they knew though ...

In July of 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team brought the Manhattan Project to fruition by detonating the first nuclear bomb at the Trinity Site, near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

The test had far reaching effects that went way beyond the barren, New Mexico desert.

On July 16, when the plutonium-implosion device was set off atop a 100-foot metal tower in a test code-named “Trinity,” the resultant blast was much stronger than anticipated. The irradiated mushroom cloud also went many times higher into the atmosphere than expected: some 50,000 to 70,000 feet. Where it would ultimately go was anyone’s guess. - NYTimes

Here is the blast, in color.

A recently released study more clearly defines where all that fallout went and who was affected.

Short answer, damn near the entire continent.

Fallout reached 46 of the 50 United States as well as both Canada and Mexico.

While everyone expected the fallout to drift, they never dreamed it would drift as far as it did.

Thanks to new technology and some recently discovered records, we now know the fallout drifted north to the Canadian border, east toward the Atlantic, then back down over most of the USA, toward Mexico.

It made it as far down the east coast of the United States as the southern tip of Florida.

West of the Trinity Site, it looks like only New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and the lowest part of California got any radiation.

You can view the mapping here.

While the Trinity Site is only 165 miles from El Paso, the map shows that El Paso didn't really get much in the way of fallout.

More nuclear testing in Nevada further contaminated the US, you can see that map here.

There's nothing we can do about it now but these findings do open the door for some of those exposed to seek $$ from the federal government.