Ground zero
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Ground zero (disambiguation).
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 earthquake epicenter, 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).
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[edit] Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Relating to a specific event, the term was first used to refer to the devastation caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki [1].
[edit] The Pentagon
The Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. was thought of as the most likely target of a nuclear missile strike during the Cold War. The open space in the center is informally known as ground zero, and a snack bar located at the center of this plaza is named the "Ground Zero Cafe."
[edit] World Trade Center
The origins of the term "Ground Zero" began with the so-called Manhattan Project and the nuclear bombing of Japan. The Oxford English Dictionary, citing the use of the term in a 1946 New York Times report on the destroyed city of Hiroshima, defines “ground zero” as “that part of the ground situated immediately under an exploding bomb, especially an atomic one.”
The term was first used to describe the former site of the World Trade Center of New York City, which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, by terrorists. Its appropriation and dissemination by the mainstream North American media was astonishingly rapid, as by September 16, 2001, even the purportedly circumspect New York Times had adopted it. Rescue workers preferred the phrase "The Pile", referring to the pile of rubble that was left after the buildings collapsed.
- Further information: World Trade Center site
[edit] 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[citation needed].
