Welcome to You Ask Andy

Red Dunn, age 14, of Monroe, La., for his question:

WHY IS ENEWETOK FAMOUS?

Enewetok is a large, isolated atoll in the northwestern corner of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Here's how you pronounce the name: Eh naw wee talk.

After World War II, Enewetok became famous as the U.S. atomic testing ground. In 1948, three improved atomic bombs were exploded there.

The U.S. set off four more atomic bombs in 1951.

The first hydrogen bomb was exploded at Enewetok in 1952. Further hydrogen bomb and other nuclear tests were conducted there by the U.S. in the late 1950s.

Enewetok is made up of 40 low, sandy islets with a land area of about two and a quarter square miles. The lagoon in the atoll covers 388 square miles.

An atoll is a circular ring of coral in an open area, built up on a sunken bank, or formed on the crater of a volcano that has sunk below the surface of the sea. A thin layer of soil generally lodges on the reef and vegetation springs up.

 

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