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Surge Levels in a Can

In the late 1940s, WHOI scientists helped document the impacts of U.S. nuclear weapons tests conducted in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958 during Operation Crossroads. To measure surge levels they anticipated would hit Bikini and Enewetok Atolls from the underwater nuclear explosions, the scientists came up with an inexpensive and simple approach: They nailed empty tin cans to palm trees at various heights. Today, scientists at WHOI continue to investigate the impacts of the bomb tests by studying lingering radioactivity throughout the lagoons and beaches of the atolls. (Photo courtesy of WHOI Archives)