kilotons

A kiloton is a unit of explosive force equivalent to one thousand tons of TNT, used primarily to measure the yield of nuclear weapons.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of approximately fifteen kilotons.

In non-military contexts, kiloton can simply measure mass equal to one thousand metric tons, though this usage is less common.

The prefix kilo- follows standard metric convention, with megaton representing one thousand kilotons.