The Maritime Cultural Landscape of the Simulated Nuclear Battlefield at Bikini Atoll

The lagoon seabed of Bikini Atoll represents the only simulated nuclear underwater battlefield on Earth. The 12 shipwrecks at Bikini are part of a broader maritime cultural landscape that spans the Pacific Ocean as other irradiated vessels from the nuclear tests of Operation Crossroads were towed to Kwajalein, Hawaii, and locations along the US west coast and scuttled. A multibeam sonar survey of the entire nuclear fleet at the bottom of Bikini lagoon was conducted in 2019 and documented for the first time the full landscape of this battlefield, and the impacts of the nuclear blasts on the seabed. This work is one step toward further documenting these sites as part of a broader nuclear landscape.