Bikini Atoll
Bikini Atoll is a group of 23 islands in the Pacific that is forever linked with the nuclear age. Between 1946 and 1958, twenty-three nuclear devices were detonated at Bikini Atoll by the USA.
The local inhabitants were displaced and the tests had major consequences on the geology and natural environment of Bikini Atoll and on the health of those who were exposed to radiation.
In 1968 the United States declared Bikini habitable and started bringing a small group of Bikinians back to their homes in the early 1970s as a test. In 1978, however, the islanders were removed again when strontium-90 in their bodies reached dangerous levels after a French team of scientists did additional tests on the island.
Prior to the explosion of the first atomic bomb on the island, the lagoon at Bikini was designated as a ship graveyard after World War II by the United States Navy. Today the Bikini Lagoon is still home to a large number of vessels.
Map of Bikini Atoll
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Site Info
- Full Name
- Bikini Atoll
- Unesco ID
- 1339
- Country
- Marshall Islands
- Inscribed
- 2010
- Type
- Cultural
- Criteria
-
4 6
- Categories
- Secular structure - Memorials and Monuments
- Link
- By ID
Site History
2010 Advisory Body overruled
ICOMOS advised Referral, to "Draw up an inventory of the land-based properties that contribute to the value of the property; inscribe the most important of these on the national historic sites list;"
2010 Inscribed
Site Links
Unesco Website
Official Website
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