An astounding series of explosions onboard
Yamato produced the mushroom cloud seen here shortly before she sank. Yamato
settled on the seafloor 1,200 feet down and about 50
miles southwest of Kyushu, Japan. Experts believe that a fire raging in the
battleship's aft secondary magazine caused tons of ammunition to ignite almost simultaneously,
producing the blasts that tore the ship in half and sank her. These
blasts were perhaps the largest ever to occur at sea.