Tsar Bomba C), north of the Arctic Circle over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The bomb was dropped from an altitude of ; it was designed to detonate at a height of over the land surface ( above sea level) by barometric sensors. The original, November 1961, United States Atomic Energy Commission estimate of the yield was 55–60 megatons, but since 1992, all Russian sources have stated its yield as 58.6 megatons. First secretary Khrushchev warned in a filmed speech to the Supreme Soviet of the existence of a 100-megaton bomb (technically the design was capable of this yield.)
Severnaya Zemlya the islands, but adverse weather conditions forced them to turn southward when only an hour or two from viewing the archipelago's coastline. In the spring of 1931 Georgy Ushakov, accompanied by the geologist Nikolay Urvantsev, the veteran surveyor Sergei Zhuravlev, and the radio operator Vasily Khodov thoroughly surveyed Severnaya Zemlya during a two-year expedition to the archipelago. Ushakov and his team established a small base at Golomyanny – the western end of Sredniy Island, off October Revolution Island's western coast. From there they made multiple surveying trips into the interior and the coastlines of the larger islands. The first detailed