Gigatonne

A 'gigatonne (or gigaton, with symbol Gt) is a metric unit of energy produced equivalent to the explosion of 1,000,000,000 (1 Trillion) wikipedia:metric_tons of Trinitrotoluene.
Usually the term gigatonne is intended as measure unit of the energy yield of nuclear explosions, come equivalent energy of a Trillion tons of TNT.
== Equivalence ==
The energetic equivalent of a Gigatonne is 1Gt = 4.184 EJ.
A gigatonne equals to 1,000 megatons. The most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, was the Czar Bomb (called also TSAR), and was made explode at mid altitude over the skies of New Zemlya in the Russian central Arctic Ocean (that at that time was the communist Soviet Union) on October 30 of 1961, yielding an energy between 50 and 57 megatons (238.5 PetaJoules).
The term gigatonne could be applied to sismology (but it is seldom done, only for comparison). An earthquake in Richter scale 8.0 will release an energy of 1.01 Gigatonnes. The 2004 earthquake in Indian Ocean had an intensity estimated at around 100 Gigatonnes (equal to 400 ExaJoules).
 
== Planetology ==
La planetologia può inoltre quantificare eventi come l'impatto di asteroidi o comete con questa unità di misura. Ad esempio, l'impatto che avrebbe originato il Cratere di Chicxulub in Messico si aggirerebbe intorno ai 190.000 gigatoni, cioè 795 ZJ.
==Voci correlate==
*Chilotone
*Megatone
*Joule
*Bomba atomica
== Source ==
* 
Category:Nuclear weapons
Category:Asteroids
Category:Earthquakes