12/4/2023 0 Comments Radioactive cobalt bomb![]() ![]() It has even reached organisms in the deepest ocean trench. First the isotope entered water, sediments and vegetation, and then it passed along the food chain to humans. Perhaps lesser known outside the scientific laboratory is that the bombs also reacted with natural nitrogen to form new isotopes – particularly carbon-14.īy the 1960s, overground bomb testing had produced almost twice the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere compared with previous levels. It's well-established that these tests spread radioactive material far and wide, harming humans and wildlife and rendering whole regions uninhabitable. More than 500 of these blasts – mainly conducted by the US and Russia – spewed their contents into the atmosphere. So, what exactly is the bomb spike, and what can it reveal about us and the world?īefore the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty obligated signatory nations to test nuclear bombs underground, governments exploded hundreds of atomic weapons out in the open air. In July, a group of earth scientists recommended that its presence in a Canadian lake – along with other human-made markers from the mid-20th Century – should represent the official start of the Anthropocene. ![]() Why? Evidence of the pulse is so ubiquitous that it can, among many other insights, tell forensic scientists when a person was born (or died), provide discoveries about the age of neurons in our brains, reveal the origin of poached wildlife, determine red wine vintage and even unlock the true age of centuries-old sharks (see box: "The bomb spike's multiple uses").Īnd now it may also help to define a new geological era. Some have even gone so far as to describe it as the " mushroom cloud's silver lining". In fact, it's proven surprisingly helpful for scientists in recent years. Unlike the direct radioactive fallout from the explosions, the bomb spike is not harmful. In the 1950s, there were so many nuclear bomb explosions above ground that it transformed the chemical make-up of the atmosphere – altering the carbon composition of life on Earth ever since, along with oceans, sediments, stalactites and more. Scientists call it the "bomb spike" (or "bomb pulse") – and for more than half a century its signature has been present inside the human body.
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