Bikini Atoll

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File:Flag of bikini.png
The Flag of Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an uninhabited 6.0-square-kilometer atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is a member of the Marshall Islands. It consists of 36 islands surrounding a 594.2-square-kilometer lagoon. As part of the Pacific Proving Grounds it was a site of more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958, including the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb in 1954.

The navigator and explorer Otto von Kotzebue named Bikini Atoll Eschscholtz Atoll after the scientist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz.

Preceding the nuclear tests, the indigenous population was relocated to Rongerik Atoll. The tests began in July 1946. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the original islanders returned from Kili Island but were removed because of the high radioactivity.

For examination of the fallout, several rockets of the types Loki and Asp were launched at 11°35′N 165°20′E / 11.583°N 165.333°E / 11.583; 165.333.

Bikini Island

File:BikiniIsland.png
Bikini Atoll, with Bikini island boxed. The crater formed by the Castle Bravo nuclear test can be seen on the northwest cape of the atoll.

Bikini Island is the northeasternmost and largest island of Bikini Atoll. It is the most well-known and important island of the atoll, and measures about four kilometres. About twelve kilometres to the northwest is Aomen, the first island in that direction, and to the south of Bikini is Bukonfuaaku. Bikini Island is well-known for two reasons. First, it, along with the rest of the atoll, was subject to numerous nuclear bomb tests. Second, the bikini swimsuit was named after this island in 1946, as the two piece swimsuit was introduced within days that the nuclear test occurred, and the name of the island was popular in the news.

Between 1946 and 1958, twenty three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll. One detonation on March 1 1954, codenamed Castle Bravo, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. The largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States, it was much more powerful than predicted and created widespread radioactive contamination.

The Micronesian inhabitants, who numbered about 200 before the United States relocated them after World War II, ate fish, shellfish, bananas, and coconuts. A large majority of the Bikinians were moved to a single island named Kili as part of their temporary homestead, but remain until today and receive compensation from the United States for their survival.

In 1968 the United States declared Bikini habitable and started bringing a small group of Bikinians back to their homes in the early 1970s as a test. In 1978, however, the islanders were removed again when strontium-90 in their bodies reached dangerous levels after a French team of scientists did additional tests on the island. It was not uncommon for women to fall ill and die during childbirth at a much higher rate than normal. The islanders sued the United States and were awarded $100 million in compensation.

The clean-up operation scraped off the top 16 inches of soil from the main island of Bikini, generating a million cubic feet of radioactive soil that could not be disposed of, at a cost that far exceeds this compensation award.

Map of the Marshall Islands

Bikini Lagoon

Prior to the explosion of the first atomic bomb on the island, the lagoon at Bikini was designated as a ship graveyard during WW II by the US. Today the Bikini Lagoon is still home to a large number of vessels from the United States and other countries. The dangers of the radioactivity and limited services in the area led to divers staying away from one of the most remarkable potential diving sites in the Pacific for many years. Today a limited number of divers head for the lagoon at Bikini every year for an extensive tour of World War II naval vessels. The dive spot has become popular among divers in the last 10 years. The lagoon contains a larger amount of sealife than usual due to the lack of fishing, including sharks, increasing the fascination with the spot as a diver's adventure spot.

References in popular culture

  • The author Theodore Taylor wrote a children's novel titled The Bomb, which told the story of a teenager's fight to prevent the first atom bomb from being dropped onto the atoll.
Aim for the body rare, you'll see it on TV
The worst thing in 1954 was the Bikini
See the girl on the TV dressed in a Bikini
She doesn't think so but she's dressed for the H-Bomb[1]
  • A joke in the '50s asserted that "right next to Bikini Atoll is a famous nudist colony: No Bikini Atoll".
  • Ground Zero, an X-Files themed novel by Kevin J. Anderson, revolves around violent ghosts that were created during the nuclear tests at the Bikini Atoll when several members of the Micronesian tribe were not removed from the island by the U.S. authorities and were subsequently incinerated.
  • Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll is a plot device of the first Godzilla movie, leading to Godzilla's awakening.

See also

External links

11°35′N 165°23′E / 11.583°N 165.383°E / 11.583; 165.383

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