Bikini Atoll holds the wrecks of a nuclear test fleet on its lagoon floor and the memory of the 23 detonations that shaped the Cold War. Uninhabited since 1946, it is now visited only by specialist wreck-diving expeditions, its craters and sunken warships standing as one of the starkest cultural landscapes left by the atomic age.
At a glance
Bikini Atoll is a coral atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, in the western Pacific. Between 1946 and 1958 the United States carried out 23 nuclear detonations here, including Castle Bravo, the largest atmospheric test the country ever conducted. The atoll remains uninhabited because of residual radioactive contamination, and its lagoon holds the wrecks of the target fleet used in the tests, among them the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, the Japanese battleship HIJMS Nagato and the USS Arkansas.
Key facts
- Location: Bikini Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia
- Testing period: 23 nuclear detonations between 1946 and 1958
- Best-known test: Castle Bravo, 1 March 1954, 15 megatons, the largest US atmospheric detonation
- Status: uninhabited; inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010
- Notable wrecks: USS Saratoga, HIJMS Nagato, USS Arkansas, lying at depths of roughly 50-60 metres
History
Operation Crossroads opened the test series in 1946 with two detonations, Able and Baker. Baker, an underwater burst, sank much of the target fleet and produced the mushroom-cloud-and-water-column image that became emblematic of the nuclear age. In February 1946, before testing began, the 167 Bikinian people were asked by US Navy Commodore Ben Wyatt to leave their homeland; their king, Juda, agreed, and the community was relocated to Rongerik Atoll, which could not support them. The Bikinians have been moved several times since and have never permanently returned.
The most consequential test was Castle Bravo in March 1954. An error in calculating the reaction of lithium-7 produced a yield far larger than predicted, contaminating a wide area of ocean with fallout. The people of nearby Rongelap Atoll were exposed to severe radiation and evacuated only after symptoms appeared, and the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon No. 5 suffered radiation sickness, with one member later dying. The Lucky Dragon incident caused outrage in Japan and fed a global movement against atmospheric testing that led to the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
What you see
The lagoon holds one of the most significant concentrations of shipwrecks anywhere, sunk by the Baker blast in 1946. The Saratoga, an American aircraft carrier over 270 metres long, lies with its hangar still containing aircraft and its flight deck reachable by experienced divers. The Nagato, the Japanese battleship from which Admiral Yamamoto ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor, rests inverted nearby, and the Arkansas, the oldest ship in the fleet, lies close by as well. Coral has colonised the hulls, turning the wrecks into reefs in their own right, and fish have returned to the lagoon in numbers, though some predatory species carry elevated levels of caesium-137. The craters left by the detonations are visible on the lagoon floor, though at depths too great to dive.
Practical information
- Access: Bikini Atoll has no regular transport and can only be reached on live-aboard expeditions run by a specialist dive operator; details and current schedules should be checked directly with the operator
- Visas: citizens of the Marshall Islands and the United States do not need a visa; other nationalities should apply in advance
- Diving: the wreck dives involve significant depth and decompression stops and are suited only to experienced divers
- Food safety: some fish species in the lagoon should not be eaten because of residual caesium-137
Getting there
The usual route runs by air to Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, reached via the United Airlines Island Hopper service, then on towards Kwajalein or Roi-Namur, followed by a sea crossing by dive boat to Bikini itself. The journey is long and only makes sense as part of an organised diving expedition.
Nearby
- Majuro Atoll — the capital of the Marshall Islands, one of the most densely populated atolls in the Pacific and site of the Alele Museum, which holds traditional Marshallese stick charts used for wave-pattern navigation
- Rongelap Atoll — contaminated by fallout from Castle Bravo in 1954; its people were evacuated by Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior in 1985, and the atoll remains only partly resettled because of contamination in the food chain
Sources
- Wikipedia, Bikini Atoll
- Wikipedia, Castle Bravo
- Wikipedia, Lucky Dragon No. 5
- UNESCO, Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Become a Cultural Heritage Online photographer
Share your photos of places: they stay published under your name as the author. The more they're seen, the more you get noticed — and soon a contest will reward the most appreciated photos.
Log in or sign up free to add a photo