Effects of a 250000 Megaton nuclear detonation...
- Thread starter dmz23
- Start date
On land it will probably destroy everything around it for miles and miles causing earthquakes and volcanoes and such, fallout will probably spread around the world, killing every living thing and blot out the sun for decades to come, ensuring a horrible fate for anyone one unlucky enough to die. At sea it will do much the same, only with more water based disasters like tsunamis. It will also probably kill everything in the ocean, which is a source of most of our food and oxygen, so we get to see if we starve or suffocate to death first. Of course this is a assuming we are not blown off of our gravitational orbit, or just blown to pieces.
There is a asteroid impact simulation site out there that gives the energy of the impact in megatons. If I can (re)find the site, I'll post the link. You could play with it until you get a big enough impact, that should be close.
Edit: Found it http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/
Edit: Found it http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/
Not at all. If I remember correctly, Tsar Bomba was designed for a 100 Megaton payload, and reduced to 50 Megatons so that the bomber crew would be able to escape the blast area.
Your Bomb is 250 Gigatons. Compared to Tsar Bomba (50Mt):
Tsar Bomba triggered a 5.0 Earthquake on the ground, despite being burst well above the ground. It's fireball was 4.6 Km across, Third Degree Burns would happen at 100 KM from the blast radius and blast damage was found as far as 1,000 KM from the blast effect.
So your weapon is going to have about 16 times the blast radius--a Fireball over 73 KM across, Third Degree Burns at 1,600 KM from the blast radius and damage at 16,000 KM from the blast effect (which happens to be on the other side of the entire planet).
Now, its possible with advance warning that many people would survive @1,600 KM if they could get to a subbasement or something. But then there is the question of Radiation, which would almost certainly reap a terrible toll on humanity. This explosion is so powerful that it would trigger volcanic activity if detonated near the ground and a huge amount of dirt will become irradiated. This might not extinct humanity, but if the weapon was detonated in Europe I'd expect the survivors to be in Australia and South America.
Very fortunately, the emphasis on giant nuclear weapons has ebbed with the increase precision of computers. Nuclear weapons are getting smaller, and a 250 Gigaton weapon is not in the cards.
It's not actually as bad as all that. The Cretaceous Event had an estimated yield of 100 teratons or 100,000 gigatons or 100,000,000 megatons. Per wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
That is 400 times greater yield than your postulated nuclear device.
And although the biosphere was badly hit, within 10 megayears a full recovery had been made.
Of course radiation would be the great unknown...absent from a comet impact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater
That is 400 times greater yield than your postulated nuclear device.
And although the biosphere was badly hit, within 10 megayears a full recovery had been made.
Of course radiation would be the great unknown...absent from a comet impact.
bard32
Banned
Operation Crossroads. Operation Crossroads was the detonation of the first
hydrogen bomb. It was at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It involved using old ships
from World War II. Now if we have a 25,000 megaton bomb, that's a horse of
a different color. It would kill everyone and everything in the vacinity.
In geological terms, sure it is. The dinos had been around for 200 million years to put it into perspective, and the entire biosphere had re-evolved around mammals and birds only 10 million years later. Course the birds themselves were evolved dinos and the mammals had been around since before the dinos...keeping their heads down.
A very good explination. Thank you.In geological terms, sure it is. The dinos had been around for 200 million years to put it into perspective, and the entire biosphere had re-evolved around mammals and birds only 10 million years later. Course the birds themselves were evolved dinos and the mammals had been around since before the dinos...keeping their heads down.
Georgepattonjr
Banned
If acted upon quick enough another nuclear blast could snuff out the mega one, sure someone has to die when explosions happen, I'm sure there is some scientific law out there like
"Duergenfurgs law of explosionary cause and effects upon biological creatures"
would take effect while a snuff explosion would work like a snuff flame, burn out the other or in this case, blow the heaven out of the blast condensing it to a smaller area within the explosion, then its all down to radiation, im sure a Giant lead dome could be built. Possibly Noah's ark made of lead?
"Duergenfurgs law of explosionary cause and effects upon biological creatures"
would take effect while a snuff explosion would work like a snuff flame, burn out the other or in this case, blow the heaven out of the blast condensing it to a smaller area within the explosion, then its all down to radiation, im sure a Giant lead dome could be built. Possibly Noah's ark made of lead?
No it would not... nuclear explosions going off in close proximity to each other simultaneously do not 'snuff the other explosion out'. Otherwise, we would not have such gross overkill when it comes to targetting(Moscow, during the 80's, had 200 warheads targetted on it alone).