The Biggest Explosions Ever on Earth

The Earth has been rocked with some very massive explosions, but there are a few that are exceptionally noteworthy. While many of the largest ones took place in the distant past, there have still been some massive impacts, eruptions, and even artificial explosions in recent times.

5. Tunguska Event: In June 1908, an unknown object exploded in the air above the Tunguska River in Russia. The blast, although not realized at the time, was very similar to a nuclear air burst, sans the radiation of course. This is the largest impact in recent history, with an estimated yield of 15 megatons of TNT. While the identity of the object is unknown, many believe it was a comet that exploded before touching down on the Earth.

4. Tsar Bomba: This is the largest nuclear weapon to ever be detonated. The weapon had a yield of 50 megatons of TNT, although the theoretical yield was actually 100 megatons. This was scaled back as a design choice to reduce nuclear fallout, as it was only being used as a test weapon. By comparison, the weapons dropped on Japan in World War 2 only had a yield of about 20 kilotons--the Tsar bomba was over 2,000 times as powerful. The blast was so massive that it could be felt all the way in Europe.

3. Toba Eruption: While not the largest volcanic eruption in the history of the world, this one is by far the most significant for humans. Some 70,000 years ago the supervolcano exploded and spewed almost 700 cubic miles of material into the atmosphere. The event was so catastrophic, in fact, that it is believed to have killed about 60% of the human population. This caused the largest population bottleneck in human history, reducing us to some 1,000 breeding pairs. This explosion was around 20 times more powerful than the Tsar Bomba.

2. Chicxulub Impact: This is the impact that presumably killed the dinosaurs, and had a yield that was 100,000 times that of the Toba Eruption. Unlike the Toba Eruption, which only killed a lot of people, the Chicxulub Impact completely wiped out entire species, causing the extinction of the dominant dinosaurs and lending itself to the rise of mammals. The crater caused by the impact is some 100 miles in diameter and was caused by an asteroid of around 6 miles in diameter. No explosion of this magnitude has happened since--this sort of event is incredibly rare.

1. Theia Impact: Not many people have heard of this one, but it's likely the largest explosion that the Earth has ever suffered. Some 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth was presumably struck by a Mars-sized object, traveling somewhere between 10 and 20km/s. Just the approach of the object would be enough to annihilate everything on the Earth, causing immense earthquakes that rip apart the crust. The impact itself would be unlike anything ever seen on the planet, dwarfing the Chicxulub Impact. With a yield of some 30 exatons of TNT, it would have been over a hundred million times more powerful than the impact that killed the dinosaurs. Nothing could survive on the Earth were this to happen again.