USA Today significantly misstated the power of the atomic bomb used against Hiroshima in a chart it tweeted out after a U.S. bombing conducted in Afghanistan on Thursday.
Targeting a series of Islamic State tunnels in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, the U.S. dropped a 21,600-pound GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed the "Mother of All Bombs." It has the explosive yield of 11 tons of TNT.
The atomic bomb used against Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, codenamed "Little Boy," had an explosive yield equivalent to 15 kilotons of TNT, but the USA Today chart said it was merely 15 tons of TNT.
The difference is by a factor of 1,000.
The chart made it seem as though the bomb used by the U.S. on Thursday was nearly as powerful as the atomic bomb that leveled the Japanese city and killed tens of thousands of people.
The newspaper deleted the tweet after numerous people pointed out the error.
Hiroshima bomb was 15 THOUSAND tons, not 15. https://t.co/hCFn5qTFHe
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 13, 2017
The explosive death of expertise https://t.co/V20ECHLU10
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) April 13, 2017
@nktpnd @USATODAY USA TODAY left out a few zeros on their chart. The explosive yield of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15,000 tons of TNT, not 15.
— Mark Sbarra (@oldrover1) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY You might want to fact check the yield of the atomic bomb. You are a few orders of magnitude off.
— Chris Griffith (@ChrisGriffith) April 13, 2017
Dear @USATODAY, learn math & history. Hiroshima bomb was 15 KILO-tons, not tons. No comparison to MOAB. pic.twitter.com/utDBGn6ALa
— Stephen Young (@StephenUCS) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY Hiroshima was 15 KILOtons of TNT, not 15 tons.
— Chelle (@GSRanchNJ) April 13, 2017
@USATODAY The bomb used on Hiroshima had a yield of 15 KT, or 15 THOUSAND tons of TNT. Feel free to reach out to us for more info.
— Nukes of Hazard (@nukes_of_hazard) April 13, 2017
This @USATODAY chart gets relative explosive yield wrong by 1000x.
MOAB: 11 tons TNT
Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima: 15,000 tons TNT https://t.co/ojpWkUviNj
— Bradley Peniston (@navybook) April 13, 2017