Michael Davis
Mushroom clouds are distinctive mushroom-shaped clouds that form after large explosions. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but they can also occur after any sufficiently energetic detonation or deflagration, such as with powerful conventional weapons, volcanic eruptions, or impact events. The formation of a mushroom cloud is due to the sudden release of large amounts of energy, which creates a very hot bubble of gas that interacts with the cooler surrounding air, making it less dense. This hot air is buoyant and rises rapidly, creating turbulent vortices curling downward around its edges, forming a temporary vortex ring that draws up a central column, possibly with smoke, debris, condensed water vapour, or a combination of these elements.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Cause | Nuclear explosions, chemical explosions, volcanic eruptions, impact events |
| Appearance | Mushroom-shaped cloud of debris, smoke, condensed water vapour |
| Formation | Explosion creates a hot bubble of gas that rises and expands, forming a powerful updraft that is filled with surrounding air and dust |
| Height | Varies, can reach 40 miles into the atmosphere |
| Colour | Initially red or reddish-brown, then changes to white |
| Fallout | More radioactive fallout from surface bursts |
| Double Mushroom | Formed under certain conditions, e.g. Buster-Jangle Sugar shot |
| No Mushroom Cloud | Detonation deep underground or underwater does not produce a mushroom cloud |
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What You'll Learn
Nuclear bombs and mushroom clouds
Nuclear explosions are well known for the distinctive mushroom clouds that they create. These clouds are caused by the sudden release of large amounts of energy, which creates a very hot bubble of gas that interacts with the cooler surrounding air, making it less dense. This is known as a fireball, and it rises rapidly, creating a powerful updraft that is then filled with surrounding air, dust, and debris. The fireball increases in size and cools, and the vapours condense to form a cloud containing solid particles of weapon debris and small drops of water. This cloud then spreads out, continuing to grow laterally to produce the characteristic mushroom shape.
The height reached by the mushroom cloud depends on the heat energy of the weapon and the atmospheric conditions. If the cloud reaches the tropopause, about 6-8 miles above the Earth's surface, there is a tendency for it to spread out. However, if there is sufficient energy remaining, a portion of the cloud will continue to ascend into the stratosphere. The cloud attains its maximum height after about 10 minutes and is then considered "stabilized". It can remain visible for about an hour or more before being dispersed by the wind.
The shape of the mushroom cloud is influenced by the layering of humidity in the atmosphere, which affects the appearance of condensation rings and the stem of the cloud. The updraft caused by the explosion results in laminar flow, which pushes a layer of warm, humid, low-altitude air upwards into cold, high-altitude air. This causes the condensation of water vapour and the formation of ice caps. The resulting composite structures can be very complex, with multiple condensation rings, ice caps, skirts, and bells.
While mushroom clouds are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, they can also be caused by other types of powerful conventional weapons, such as thermobaric weapons. Additionally, natural events such as volcanic eruptions and impact events can produce mushroom clouds. However, it is important to note that mushroom clouds do not occur in the absence of an atmosphere, as the fluid material and air densities are necessary for their formation.
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How a mushroom cloud forms
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped cloud of debris, smoke, and usually condensed water vapour resulting from a large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently energetic detonation or deflagration will produce a similar effect. They can be caused by powerful conventional weapons, including thermobaric weapons. Some volcanic eruptions and impact events can produce natural mushroom clouds.
Mushroom clouds are formed by many sorts of large explosions under Earth's gravity. When a bomb goes off, energy is released in all directions, forming a sphere of hot air. Because hot air rises, the larger bulk of the sphere in the middle experiences more buoyancy than the edges. The buoyant mass of gas rises rapidly, resulting in turbulent vortices curling downward around its edges, forming a temporary vortex ring that draws up a central column, possibly with smoke, debris, condensed water vapour, or a combination of these, to form the "mushroom stem".
Nuclear weapons are usually detonated above the ground to maximize the effect of their spherically expanding fireball and blast wave. Immediately after the detonation, the fireball begins to rise into the air. One way to analyse the motion, once the hot gas has cleared the ground sufficiently, is as a "spherical cap bubble", as this gives agreement between the rate of rise and observed diameter. As it rises, a Rayleigh–Taylor instability is formed, and air is drawn upwards and into the cloud, producing strong air currents known as "afterwinds". When the detonation altitude is low enough, these afterwinds will draw in dirt and debris from the ground below to form the stem of the mushroom cloud.
The shape of the cloud is influenced by the local atmospheric conditions and wind patterns. The layering of humidity in the atmosphere influences the shape of the condensation rings as opposed to a spherical cloud. The updraft causes laminar flow, which first causes the condensation of water vapour and then causes the resulting droplets to freeze, forming ice caps. The resulting composite structures can become very complex.
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The science behind the shape
Mushroom clouds are clouds of smoke, debris, and usually condensed water vapour that form after a large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently energetic detonation or deflagration will produce a similar effect. This includes powerful conventional weapons, such as thermobaric weapons, as well as some volcanic eruptions and impact events.
When a bomb goes off, energy is released in all directions, forming a sphere of hot air. However, because hot air rises, the larger bulk of the sphere in the middle experiences more buoyancy than the edges. This results in a very hot bubble of gas rising rapidly, interacting with the cooler surrounding air, and making it less dense. In the case of a nuclear detonation, the bomb also emits a blast of X-rays, which ionize and heat the surrounding air. This hot bubble of gas is known as a fireball.
As the fireball rises, it creates a powerful updraft, which is then filled by the surrounding air, dust, and dirt, forming the stem of the mushroom cloud. The central part of the fireball is the hottest, creating a rolling motion as it interacts with the outer, cooler portions. Thermal instabilities, called Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, occur at the interface between the fireball and the neighbouring cool air. The fireball continues to rise until it reaches a point where the surrounding air is the same density. In the case of nuclear explosions, this is usually high in the atmosphere, often in the ozone layer.
The eventual height reached by the cloud depends on the heat energy of the weapon and the atmospheric conditions. If the cloud reaches the tropopause, the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere, there is a tendency for it to spread out. If the cloud contains sufficient energy at this height, a portion of it will ascend into the stratosphere. The cloud attains its maximum height after about 10 minutes and is then said to be "stabilized". It continues to grow laterally, producing the characteristic mushroom shape. The cloud may continue to be visible for about an hour or more before being dispersed by the wind.
The layering of humidity in the atmosphere influences the shape of the condensation artifacts along the stem of the mushroom cloud. The updraft causes laminar flow, which pushes a layer of warm, humid, low-altitude air upwards into cold, high-altitude air. This causes the condensation of water vapour and the formation of ice caps, similar to scarf clouds. The resulting composite structures can become very complex, with multiple condensation rings, ice caps, skirts, and bells.
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Conventional bombs and mushroom clouds
Mushroom clouds are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions. However, any sufficiently large explosion can produce a similar effect. This includes powerful conventional weapons, such as thermobaric weapons like the ATBIP and GBU-43/B MOAB.
Mushroom clouds are formed by the sudden creation of a large volume of lower-density gases at high temperatures. This results in a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, where the buoyant mass of hot gas rises rapidly, creating turbulent vortices that curl downward around its edges. This forms a temporary vortex ring that draws up a central column, which may include smoke, debris, or condensed water vapour.
The formation of a mushroom cloud can be modelled like a hot air balloon. When a device is detonated, superheated gas rises, and the resulting updraft forces the hotter air higher. This creates a rolling motion as the central, hottest part of the fireball interacts with its outer, cooler portions. The air being sucked towards the centre of the cloud is heated by velocity, causing the air inside the cloud to rotate. Eventually, the cloud reaches a point of equilibrium and stops rising.
The shape of the mushroom cloud is influenced by the layering of humidity in the atmosphere. The updraft causes laminar flow, where the expansion of the rising cloud pushes a layer of warm, humid, low-altitude air upwards into cold, high-altitude air. This results in the condensation of water vapour and the formation of ice caps.
The height at which a bomb explodes will also determine the shape of the resulting mushroom cloud. High-altitude detonations are almost always spherical and lack a stem. The stem of the mushroom cloud forms when the explosion occurs close enough to the ground for the cooler ground-level air to be sucked upwards, creating the updraft necessary for the stem.
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Natural mushroom clouds
Mushroom clouds are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions. However, they can also occur naturally. Natural mushroom clouds can be the result of volcanic eruptions, impact events, and certain weather conditions.
Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanoes can create mushroom-shaped clouds that resemble those produced by nuclear explosions. When a volcano erupts, hot debris, gases, ash, rock, and steam are shot up into the sky, forming a mushroom-shaped plume. The shape and size of the mushroom cloud depend on the contents of the volcano and the nature of the eruption. The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, for instance, generated a massive mushroom cloud that was visible for miles.
Impact Events
When large meteorites or space rocks collide with the Earth, they can also produce mushroom clouds. These impact events are relatively rare, but they create a sudden release of energy that results in a mushroom-shaped cloud of debris and smoke.
Weather Conditions
In rare instances, certain weather conditions can lead to the formation of natural mushroom clouds. For example, a massive cumulonimbus cloud in Siberia caused a "Doomsday" panic among locals, but it turned out to be a harmless meteorological phenomenon.
While not as common as human-made mushroom clouds, these natural occurrences showcase how a combination of heat, energy, and atmospheric conditions can lead to the formation of mushroom-shaped clouds without human intervention.
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Frequently asked questions
Mushroom clouds are clouds of smoke and debris that form after a large explosion. They are often associated with nuclear explosions due to their distinctive shape, but they can also occur after any sufficiently energetic detonation or natural events like volcanic eruptions.
When a bomb explodes, it releases a large amount of energy, creating a very hot bubble of gas called a fireball. This fireball rises rapidly due to its buoyancy, interacting with the cooler surrounding air and making it less dense. The rising cloud creates an updraft that pulls in dust and debris, forming the stem of the mushroom cloud. As the fireball cools, vapours condense to form a cloud containing solid particles and small water droplets, resulting in the mushroom shape.
The unique shape of mushroom clouds is due to the interaction between the hot bubble of gas created by the explosion and the cooler surrounding air. The hot gas rises, pushing the cooler, denser gas downwards. As the fireball reaches higher altitudes, it encounters resistance from stronger, more stable air, causing it to flatten out and expand sideways into the characteristic mushroom cap.
While mushroom clouds are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, they can also be formed by powerful conventional weapons, such as thermobaric bombs, and natural events. Nuclear bombs typically create the most prominent mushroom clouds due to the high energy release and the resulting interaction with the atmosphere.
