00:18 The Arkansas was the closest ship to the blast and was lifted upwards by the rising water column. At 562 feet long (more than three times as long as the water is deep) and weighing 27,000 tonnes, the Arkansas was bow-pinned to the seafloor and toppled backward into the water curtain of the spray column.
Baker.The underwater fireball took the form of a rapidly expanding hot "gas bubble" pushing against the water, generating a supersonic hydraulic shock wave crushing the hulls of nearby ships. On the surface, the shock wave was visible as the leading edge of a rapidly expanding ring of dark water, called the "slick". Close behind the slick was a visually more dramatic, but less destructive whitening of the water surface called the "crack."When the gas bubble's diameter equaled the water depth, it hit the sea floor digging a shallow crater 9 m deep and 610 m wide. At the top, it pushed the water above it into a "spray dome," which burst through the surface like a geyser.
During the first full second, the expanding bubble removed all the water within a 152 m radius lifting two million tons of water and seabed into the air. As the bubble rose at 762 m/s (mach 2.5), it stretched the spray dome into a hollow cylinder of spray called the "column," 1,829 m tall, 610 m wide, and with walls 91 m thick.
As soon as the gas bubble reached the air, it started a supersonic atmospheric shock wave which, like the crack, was more visually dramatic than destructive. Brief low pressure behind the shock wave caused instant fog which shrouded the developing column in a "Wilson cloud", obscuring it from view for two seconds. By the time the Wilson cloud vanished, the top of the column had become a "cauliflower," and all the spray in the column and its cauliflower fell back into the lagoon.
Meanwhile, lagoon water rushing back into the space vacated by the rising gas bubble started a tsunami-like water wave which lifted the ships as it passed under them. At 11 seconds after detonation, the first wave was 305 m from surface zero and 30 m high. By the time it reached the Bikini Island beach, 6 km away, it was a nine-wave set with shore breakers up to 5 m high, which tossed landing craft onto the beach.
Twelve seconds after detonation, falling water from the column started to create a 274 m tall "base surge" resembling the mist at the bottom of a large waterfall. Unlike the water wave, the base surge rolled over rather than under the ships. Of all the bomb's effects, the base surge had the greatest consequence for most of the target ships, as it painted them with a penetrating aerosol of highly radioactivite water.
Eight ships were sunk or capsized, eight more were immobilized or seriously damaged. Generally, ships beyond 1,370 m were undamaged. Those between 1000 m and 1,370 m sustained only slight damage. Those between 820 and 1000 yards suffered moderate damage. Those inside 820 meters were seriously damaged or were sunk.
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