Ground zero
 |
- (For other uses of "Ground zero", see Other uses section below)
Ground zero is the exact location on the ground where any explosion occurs. The term has often been associated with nuclear explosions, but is also used in relation to earthquakes, epidemics and other disasters to mark the point of the most severe damage or destruction. Damage gradually decreases with distance from this point.
The term may also be used to describe the impact point of any exploding bomb. In the case of a bomb which explodes above ground, the term refers to the point on the ground directly below the bomb at the moment of detonation (see hypocenter).
The term was military slang—used at the Trinity site where the weapon tower for the first nuclear weapon was at point 'zero'—and moved into general use very shortly after the end of World War II (see Manhattan Project).
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks the term often referred to the devastation caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki [1].
World Trade Center
Many journalists applied the term to describe the former site of the World Trade Center of New York City, which was destroyed on September 11, 2001. Rescue workers preferred the phrase "The Pile", referring to the pile of rubble that was left after the buildings collapsed.
Hurricane Katrina
The term has loosely been applied to several of the cities and towns struck by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, such as New Orleans, Slidell, Louisiana, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Waveland, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.
Other uses
- The term is also used by members of the U.S. armed forces to describe the snack bar at the center of The Pentagon, in a blackly humorous reference to the Russian reaction of satellite imagery indicating it to be a major center of activity, and therefore a likely target for a nuclear attack.
- There are several films and TV shows named Ground Zero. The 1987 film is about a documentary filmer who gets into trouble after filming at a site in Australia used by the United Kingdom for nuclear tests using aboriginal population as guinea pigs.
- There is a song called "Christmas At Ground Zero" by "Weird Al" Yankovic on his fourth album Polka Party!.
- There exists a avant-garde Japanese music group named Ground Zero. Some of their most popular singles include "Bones," "Where is the Police, or the Bathtub of Surprise," and "Revolutionary Pekinese Opera."
- Also an Airsoft site located in the Somerley Estate in Ringwood, featuring a Vietnam style village, Observation Point and other features oriented around gameplay, it is also closely affiliated to the Airsoft store Zero One and the popular Airsoft community ZeroIn.
- Ground Zero is the name of an official expansion to the computer game Quake II.
- Ground Zero is a book of essays by Andrew Holleran.
- WCNI 90.9 FM is referred to as Ground Zero Radio because the radio tower is the highest point near the Nuclear Submarine Base, and therefore was targeted by soviet ICBMs during the Cold War.
- Ground Zero is a talk radio show hosted by Clyde Lewis. The name is eerily prophetic, as it was chosen two weeks before the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
- groundzero.com is the Web site (registered 07-Dec-1994) for the 12-year-old New York-based design company, Ground Zero Associates.
- Ground Zero (television show) was the name of an Australian television show that aired in the late 1990s, featuring Ugly Phil, Jade Gatt and Jackie O.
External links
- WTC Ground Zero Photos by Robert Swanson
- History of the Word Ground Zero
- Step by step scenario of a 150 kiloton bomb exploding in Manhattan - click on the Next >> button at the bottom of each slide.
- The destructive forces unleashed - a U.S. physics professor has calculated the amount of energy released in the hijack attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
- Webcam Ground Zero
- Gallery of photos