| (2)Damage
by the Blast |
At the moment of the explosion an extremely high
pressure of several hundred thousand hectopascals (millibars) was created.
The surrounding air was thrust violently outwards and produced an intensely
strong blast. The pressure reached 35 tons per square meter with a speed
of 440 meters per second at the center.
Even at a radius of 500 meters from the
hypocenter this represented a huge force of 15 tons per square meter. It
resulted in practically all-standing structures being crushed and destroyed.
The blast also picked up human victims and blew them through the air for
distances of several meters.
|
| ▽Damage to
Human Body from the Blast |
The blast also threw people across distances of several meters. Others
were crushed inside their collapsed houses. Countless shards of glass penetrated
the victims' bodies. Even today, fragments of glass are discovered and
removed from atomic bomb survivors who complain of bodily pains. |
| ++Glass Fragment Expelled
Naturally after 29 Years |
Norio Nakabayashi was exposed to the bomb in the auditorium
of Hirose National School. Window glass fragments pierced or cut his upper
body and his neck in about 120 places.
This piece of glass, 6mm by 2mm by 3mm in size, was expelled naturally
from a swelling on his left cheek about 29 years after the bombing. |
| ++Iron Doors Depicting Blast.
Donated by Akihiro Takahashi |
1,400 meters from the hypocenter. Mr. Takahashi, a middle schoolboy,
was exposed at the school grounds. A shard of glass penetrated his fingernail;
therefore, his fingernail deformed and had grown long |
| ▽Damage to
the Materials from the Blast |
All wooden houses were destroyed within a radius of two kilometers
from the hypocenter. Even ferro-concrete structures were crushed by the
power of the blast. Windows were smashed at a distance of 27 kilometers.
Interestingly, concrete chimneys remained standing in the midst of the
ashes. They were probably protected from the full force of the blast by
their cylindrical shape. |
| ++Warped Iron Shutters |
Iron Shutters of the Army Clothing Depot bent by violent
blast, though it was located approximately 3km from hypocenter. |
| ++Aioi Bridge 250 meters from
the hypocenter |
The thirty-centimeter-thick floor of the Aioi Bridge,
heaved upwards because of the powerful blast of pressure that bounced
off the river below.
Photo:Toshio Kawamoto |