Nuclear-Bomb Simulation Shows How Blast Would Destroy 6 US Cities

The NukeMap tool lets you detonate a hypothetical nuclear bomb over any major city in the world. Here's what the following maps mean: Yellow: Fireball (590-foot radius) Less than one-millionth of one second after a bomb exploded, it would emit a giant orange fireball filled with hot air and weapon debris. Any buildings, objects,

The NukeMap tool lets you detonate a hypothetical nuclear bomb over any major city in the world.

Nukemap 2.5/Alex Wellerstein/Google Maps/Business Insider

Here's what the following maps mean:

Yellow: Fireball (590-foot radius) — Less than one-millionth of one second after a bomb exploded, it would emit a giant orange fireball filled with hot air and weapon debris. Any buildings, objects, and people caught within this radius would likely burst into flames.

Green: Radiation (0.74-mile radius) — Within at least 15 minutes of a blast, clouds of dust and sandlike radioactive particles — what's referred to as nuclear fallout — would reach the ground. Nuclear fallout can cause radiation poisoning, which damages the body's cells and prove fatal. Wellerstein estimated that between 50% and 90% of people within this radius could die from the acute effects of radiation.

Blue-gray: Air blast (1.04-mile radius) — Air blasts are powerful enough to topple residential buildings. There would likely also be widespread injuries and fatalities within this radius.

Orange: Thermal radiation (1.18-mile radius) — People caught within this radius could experience third-degree burns, severe scarring, or disablement.

The tool, which can be found here, allows you to input the city and the yield of the nuclear weapon you'd like to simulate.

The tool is not meant to be seen as a precise map of what could definitely happen after an impact since nuclear attacks are difficult to model. But it provides "a realistic understanding of what nuclear weapons can and can't do," Nuclear-weapons historian Alex Wellerstein, who created the tool, previously told Insider.  

It comes with some important limitations. For instance, it doesn't take into account weather conditions, which can affect the altitude of a mushroom cloud and the fallout.

It uses data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (which is sponsored by the US Department of Energy) that shows how many people are likely to inhabit an area within a 24-hour period.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonypu9Zmpa6bnJqus3nArauam5tixLDBy51knZ2jqb%2BwxYyuqmabmam2pr%2BMa2dqcV1mfw%3D%3D

 Share!