YOUR WEEKLY ESCAPE: The night atomic bombs fell on North Carolina

Plus: when the Mediterranean vanished; Roman vandals; new crayfish [ ] [CRAYFISH CLONES]( [VIEW ONLINE]( [CRAYFISH CLONES]( [National Geographic]( Your Weekly Escape Extraordinary people, discoveries, and places PHOTOGRAPH BY BETTMANN ARCHIVE, GETTY [Remembering the night two atomic bombs fell—on North Carolina]( Sixty years ago, at the height of the Cold War, a B-52 bomber disintegrated over a small Southern town. An eyewitness recalls what happened next. ["WHAT IN THE WORLD?"]( [QUOTE] The grass was burning. Big Daddy's Road over there was melting. My mother was praying. She thought it was the End of Times. Billy Reeves, witness From:[Remembering the night two atomic bombs fell—on North Carolina]( PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA [The Mediterranean nearly dried up. A cataclysmic flood revived it.]( A layer of salt up to two miles thick is one of the few traces of an ancient Mediterranean Sea that vanished millions of years ago. The details surrounding its vanishing act—and the torrents of water that refilled the basin—remain an enduring mystery. [BIGGEST FLOOD EVER?]( [A look at how fossils develop over time.]( [Photo of the day]( Keep coming back for the newest photo that captures our ever-changing world. [BOOKMARK IT]( PHOTOGRAPH BY FINE ART IMAGES, HERITAGE IMAGES/GETTY [The Vandals sacked Rome. But do they deserve their reputation?]( Their name is synonymous with destruction. But it turns out the Germanic tribe that managed to take over Rome may not deserve such a harsh legacy. [READ ON]( PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANK LYKO, BKFZ [How one female crayfish turned into a new species]( Fished from the Everglades in 1995, the lone female crayfish began cloning itself. Decades later, all of its descendants—billions of them—are female. [TRACING EVE]( [Sign up here]( ) to receive Your Weekly Escape and/or our daily newsletters—covering History, Environment, Science, Animals, Travel, and Photography news. [NGM]( [NGM]( [SHOP]( [DONATE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( [TRAVEL]( [READ OUR LATEST STORIES]( [SHOP]( [DONATE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( [TRAVEL]( [FB]( [Twitter]( [IG]( Clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and National Geographic Channel links will take you away from our National Geographic Partners site where different terms of use and privacy policy apply. This email was sent to: {EMAIL}. Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored. This email contains an advertisement from: National Geographic | 1145 17th Street, N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036 [Stop all types of future commercial email]( from National Geographic regarding its products, services, or experiences. [Manage all email preferences]( with the Walt Disney Family of Companies. © 2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC, All rights reserved.