Map shows (almost) all nuclear explosions in history

It has been over 70 years since the first nuclear explosion test was conducted in the desert of New Mexico and brought society into a new era. With it came more than 2, 000 explosions from around the world.

To better understand the size of this, we have shown some maps with bright spots that represent these explosions. The arts were created by Peter Atwood, a modeler who specializes in the technique.

Source: Bored Panda

On this map, on a global scale, you can see in general all the explosions that have occurred around the world since 1945, leaving only South America and Antarctica, which have never reported these nuclear tests.

Nevada, United States

Source: Bored Panda

Zooming in on the map of North America, we can see that many of the points that indicate test sites are concentrated in the United States, more precisely in the state of Nevada, 130 kilometers from Las Vegas. Between 1951 and 1992, more than 980 tests were carried out in the state, causing blast mushrooms to be seen soaring through the air and creating a radioactive cloud that reached Chicago five states away in Illinois. However, do not think that only Americans have caused nuclear explosions in the country: at least 24 of these tests on US soil were carried out by the British.

Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan

Source: Bored Panda

A total of 456 nuclear blast tests were conducted at the site. Also known as "The Polygon", the region was the cradle of the USSR's first nuclear weapon in 1951, extending until 1991, when Kazakhstan was separated from the Soviet Union. It is now possible to visit the site and scientists are still studying the long-term effects of the explosions.

Lop Nur, China

Source: Bored Panda

The third example is China, which is known to have performed at least 45 tests on northern Lop Nur Lake between 1964 and 1996. Even though its incidence of nuclear explosions was not as high as in other countries, its government admitted in 2009 that probably thousands of deaths occurred in the vicinity of the site - caused by the effects of radiation.

Many other locations besides these have been tested, but are not reported on the map, such as North Korea, which blasted between 2006 and 2017.