Midst of Destruction

Another view of the A-Bomb Dome, this through the first floor. You can still see the rubble around it from the parts of the building that collapsed. In addition to intense heat, the bomb projected an incredible atmospheric force that also knocked buildings down (that's what you see in the movies when a bomb goes off and our hero goes flying through the air). The initial force was immediately followed by an extremely intense "backdraft" (no idea if that's even close to the right word) that blew back toward the center of the explosion. That's because the outward force of the explosion left a really low pressure area in its center, which the higher pressure all around rushed in to fill. Got it? :)