Ok, for starters user HILL beat me to doing this and I recommend his placemarks with all known nuclear explosions. See THIS POST to get his .kmz file.

However, feel free to check out my version (basically created from the same data) of all known US nuclear explosions. If I did it right, my presentation might be a little more startling.

Amazing how easy it is to do this sort of thing. Keyhole Markup Language rocks!

[UPDATE] Hill told me that my list has a couple of tests his data didn't include (specifically the tests in the Aleutians and a couple off the California coast).

Very good. Kudos. There are so many though, that perhaps the point should be at the center of the craters.. but this is a nitpick. Good job! Scary that man did this.

The locations of the placemarks come from public data which could be (should be) suspect. I'd prefer to have them smack dab in the center of each crater also. . I'm working on another project where I want to pinpoint exactly WHERE in a specific building one would find a certain object - I'm actually going to contact people in those buildings to get specific locations (nothing nefarious).

It is pretty scary to see just how many of those suckers we lit off!

Here's the Russki's efforts to beat the snot out of the planet. All known nuclear weapons tests (no military uses we know - unlike the US) by the "then Soviet Union." The initial load should take you to the Soviet "Trinity" test: the first exploded Russian nuclear device at Pervaya Molniya (Joe) August 29, 1949.

Go to the main post directing you to Hill's earlier work of ALL nuke tests, as well as o to get my .kmz file of US nuke tests (and military uses - 2) alone. One of the things I'm trying to do (The Medium is the Massage) is to present the information dramatically.

This is also a test of Google Earth's capabilities (I'm experimenting importing geospatial data - awesome).

All data herein (and hereout) should be suspect.

Excellent point, Matzeus (about getting the placemarks to be in the middle of the craters).

What I think is that adding value includes the concept of accuracy. If my placemarks are more accurate than other placemarks, that is a good thing.

This is not an excuse: one of the things I worry about is the accuracy of GE. If I put my placemarks in the "correct" place I still worry about the GE database changing so that one of my accurate Latitude and Longitude coordinates for a specific version of the database (visual images) end up being wrong after an update.

All things being equal, when I get bored I'll probably manually shift my placemarks to reflect the center of each explosion's crater.

I think that is cool.

Jack,

Very insightful post!
Just talked to a family member who told me
they are travelling to the location in this placemark.

Should I tell them the history of this area.....

What would be cool would be for them to take picture of the site. If they would send it to me I'd be happy to modify the specific placemark to include a link (using my bandwidth, not theirs).

One of the things I like about this BBS is the ability to morph static things into something better.

Anyway, my offer stands. If they take a photo, send it to me and I'll update/modify the placemark to include it as an image in the pop up bubble.

(and we really did beat the snot out of a large chunk of the planet in testing nukes, didn't we?)

Will do,
They leave next week won't be back until mid Oct.
They are not sure of the connectivity where they will be,
So hopefully they can post some photo's.

more to come!
n1f

If my memory serves me correct, there are quite a few sites in Georgia too.

Great job to you, and Hill. It is just stunning to see how many have been set off. I have a few questions. First of all, how many are there? Also, which is the largest? The USSR Nuke 130 Tsar Bomba @ 58000 kilotons is the largest one I found. If Hiroshima was 15 kilotons, what would the destructive capability of 58000 be? This is all just insane.

Jake