THUNDEROUS ROAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26214, 26 July 1946, Page 5

THUNDEROUS ROAR

EFFICIENCY OF BOMB

ADMIRAL’S STATEMENT NO REASON FOR DOUBT (Rec. 11.45 p.m.) BIKINI, July 24. While Admiral Blandy said there was no reason to doubt the efficiency of the bomb, the fact remains that many spectacular events expected of it did not occur. There was a thunderous roar, but there were no 100-ft waves and the geyser did not reach the predicted altitude of three miles. Ninety minutes after the explosion planes flew over the lagoon at low altitudes checking the amount of lethal rays rising from the water. Nearly two hours after the explosion the Saratoga settled 15ft deeper in the water, with smoke billowing from her stern. Admiral Blandy ordered the carrier to be beached if possible and two tugs sped up the lagoon in an attempt to do so. but were forced to turn back because oi the radio-active waters. The A.B.C. broadcaster on board the Mount McKinley reports that the Saratoga sank, four of the eight target submarines are on the bottom, the destroyer Hughes is listing four feet lower in the water, the battleship New York is down two feet at the stern. The New York Times correspondent on board the Appalachian says observers saw the usual tremendous flash of light in the form of a gigantic ball of fire rising like a new sun out of the bowels of the sea. This quickly exploded into the form of a mountainous mass of clouds, from which came a giant mountain lighted up from within like a huge Christmas tree. On top of this mountain appeared a gigantic shimmering mushroom, constantly changing in form and colour. For a time it looked like a continent risen from the sea, but then it took the shape of a chain of mountains covered with snow and glistening in the sun. Thereafter it became a giant tree with many branches. “It will be some time before we know the extent of the damage, but it is reasonable to assume that when the damage is closely examined it will be found infinitely greater than that caused by the earlier Bikini explosion.” A message from New York says that, powerful as was the under-water atom blast, "it did not shake the Pacific’s floor with a strength comparable with that of an earthquake, says the Associated Press. The seismologist in the California Institute of Technology calculated that the shock, if registered, should reach the institute 11 minutes six seconds after the detonation. That time passed without even a quiver of the delicate seismograph in the laboratory. although it might possibly have been registered in the more sensitive instruments deeply set in rock, photographic plates from which will be developed to-morrow.