Bikini Atoll

From Freepedia

Image:Bikini Atoll.png Bikini Atoll (also known as Pikinni Atoll) is an uninhabited 6.0-square-kilometer atoll in one of the Micronesian Islands in the Pacific Ocean at 11°30′ N 165°25′ E. It is a member of the Marshall Islands. It consists of 36 islands surrounding a 594.2-square-kilometer lagoon. As part of the Pacific Proving Grounds it was a site of more than 20 hydrogen and atomic bomb tests between 1946 to 1958. Despite popular usage, the atoll name is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.

Preceding the nuclear tests, the indigenous population was relocated to Rongerik Atoll. The tests began in July 1946.

For examination of the fallout, several rockets of the types Loki and Asp were launched at 11°35′ N 165°20′ E.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the original islanders returned from Kili Island but were removed because of the high radioactivity.

Bikini Atoll is also the source of the name of the Bikini swimsuit.

The author Theodore Taylor once write a children's novel titled "The Bomb", which told the story of a teenager's fight to prevent the first atom bomb from being dropped onto the atoll.