› added 3 years ago

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TIL that 50 yrs ago today, the US conducted its largest underground nuclear test. A W71 warhead was detonated in a 7-ft-wide, 5,873-ft-deep shaft beneath Amchitka Island, Alaska. The yield was about 5 Megatons. The explosion raised the ground 25 ft, later collapsing into a 1-mile-wide, 60-ft crater.

Read more nuclearprinceton.princeton.edu

via reddit.com

woe48 TIL An aphid gives birth to babies that already have their own babies formed inside them. They are clones of themselves – they don’t need to breed with a male. Over a whole summer a single aphid could give rise to 250 tons of aphids.
Nm4b TIL after an Indian king was insulted for his ethnicity by an employee while visiting a Rolls-Royce showroom in London he ordered that 6 luxury cars be bought and sent back to India to be used as garbage collectors throughout the city, damaging Rolls-Royce’s reputation and profits.
AN6j4 TIL Pheasant Island located between Hendaye in France and Irún in Spain, bizarrely changes countries twice a year. This small piece of land, a mere 5,000 square meters in size is fascinating result of historical treaties.
16lJ4 TIL that while the name of the largest great lake is Superior in English, it is Gitche Gumee in Ojibwe
x6gEk TIL deep penetrating "earthquake bombs", made of almost 50% high-tensile steel, were invented by Barnes Wallis, the British inventor of the bouncing bomb used by the Dambusters in WW2. The 22,000lb / 10,000kg Grand Slam was the largest non-nuclear bomb used in WW2.