LA JOLLA, Calif., Sept. 12, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- No one could accurately predict the devastating power of the first Super Bomb explosion to be tested on a small Pacific island. Witness an intriguing inside account of the uncertainty attached to the detonation of IVY-MIKE: the first HYDROGEN BOMB written by W.G. Van Dorn.
On Saturday, November 1, 1952, the United States detonated the world's first "Super Bomb" at Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands. A thermonuclear device, the Super -- code named MIKE -- demonstrated the capability of producing a fusion reaction on earth, similar to that whereby the Sun produces heat. IVY-MIKE: the first HYDROGEN BOMB presents a fascinating narrative of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's involvement in the testing of the world's first thermonuclear device (H-Bomb) because late calculations suggested that the explosive energy released might be large enough to blow the island apart and generate a dangerous tsunami.
The detonation of IVY-MIKE: the first HYDROGEN BOMB was the first demonstration of the capability of building explosive weapons of unlimited energy, raising the specter of Assure Mutual Destruction, which capability has contributed to a nuclear stalemate for more than sixty years. The possibility of enormous tsunamis generated by asteroid impact into the oceans is a related topic of great current scientific interest. This book offers a historical perspective of nuclear testing in the pacific, and the uncertainties attached thereto; particularly the explosive energy released, and the possibility of generating a major tsunami. It also relays the problems faced by the Scripps Institution in dealing with this uncertainty.
Although the narrator of this story is a fictional person who is in a position to know everything, all events depicted in IVY-MIKE: the first HYDROGEN BOMB are accurate descriptions of actual circumstances. Three days after the "Super Bomb" was detonated, a major tsunami was generated by an earthquake in the northwestern Pacific. The narrator closes this account by conjecturing whether it would have been deemed coincidental, had the real tsunami occurred three days earlier. Bookstores can now purchase a copy of this book without fearing unsold books because it is now made returnable through Ingram.
About the Author
Dr. William G. Van Dorn received his BS in engineering at Stanford, and his MS and PhD at the University of California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. His career-long study of ocean waves and participation in most of the U.S. Pacific nuclear tests led to his recognition as a world's authority on tsunamis. He is the author of the widely read nautical book, Oceanography and Seamanship. You can visit his website at www.wgvandorn.com.
IVY-MIKE: the first HYDROGEN BOMB
by W.G. Van Dorn
Publication Date: July 7, 2008
Trade Paperback; $19.99; 382 pages; 978-1-4257-7501-8
Cloth Hardback; $29.99; 382 pages; 978-1-4257-7539-1
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