Editing Mushroom cloud (section)

{{short description|Cloud of debris and smoke from a large explosion}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}[[Image:MtRedoubtedit1.jpg|300px|thumb|Ascending cloud from [[Mount Redoubt|Redoubt Volcano]] from an eruption on 21 April 1990. The mushroom-shaped plume rose from avalanches of hot debris ([[pyroclastic flow]]s) that cascaded down the north flank of the volcano.]]
[[Image:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|Mushroom cloud from the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombing]] of [[Nagasaki]], Japan, on 9 August 1945]]

A '''mushroom cloud''' is a distinctive [[mushroom]]-shaped [[flammagenitus cloud]] of debris, smoke, and usually condensed [[water vapour]] resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a [[nuclear explosion]], but any sufficiently energetic [[detonation]] or [[deflagration]] will produce a similar effect. They can be caused by powerful [[conventional weapons]], including [[thermobaric weapon]]s such as the [[Father of All Bombs|ATBIP]] and [[GBU-43/B MOAB]]. Some [[Eruption column|volcanic eruptions]] and [[impact event]]s can produce natural mushroom clouds.

Mushroom clouds result from the sudden formation of a large volume of lower-density gases at any altitude, causing a [[Rayleigh–Taylor instability]]. The buoyant mass of gas rises rapidly, resulting in turbulent vortices curling downward around its edges, forming a temporary [[vortex ring]] that draws up a central column, possibly with smoke, debris, condensed water vapor, or a combination of these, to form the "mushroom stem". The mass of gas plus entrained moist air eventually reaches an altitude where it is no longer of lower density than the surrounding air; at this point, it disperses, [[dry deposition|drifting back down]], which results in [[nuclear fallout|fallout]] following a nuclear blast. The stabilization altitude depends strongly on the profiles of the temperature, dew point, and wind shear in the air at and above the starting altitude.