Tsar Bomba- The Effects of a Nuclear Bomb

The most powerful device ever detonated by man, Tsar Bomba, was a 50 megaton nuclear weapon tested but never fielded by the Soviet Union. What would have happened if it had been dropped on an American city?

This is the fourth part of the "effects of a nuclear bomb" series. In the series we take a look at a terrorist nuke, a 500kt thermonuclear warhead (common in today's nuclear arsenals), and a 20 MT city destroyer from the cold war.

reply to post by LibertysTeeth


Kind of scary stuff. There is a site somewhere on the web that uses googlemap and lets you pick an area and nuke it with any number of nukes including the aforementioned.

reply to post by LibertysTeeth


It was fielded and never tested because they couldntafford to make another. It was pure propaganda worls stunt. It would be very hard to use and make no sense. We have icmbs today that are much scarier. Also the megatonage has long been questioned.

Not knocking the thread, just sharing what I know about the bomb.

reply to post by LibertysTeeth

C'mon guys, this is quite unhelpful.

Want to watch a video of a murder? This is not the place for mock megasnuff videos.

reply to post by BlastedCaddy

There is a site somewhere on the web that uses googlemap and lets you pick an area and nuke it with any number of nukes including the aforementioned.

Here's one...
NUKEMAP2

reply to post by Perhaps


Thanks man.

Off to nuke DC and my boss's neighborhood.

PS.
Dear NSA,
What I meant was using the map to playfully pretend with a little sarcasm tied in.
I do not in anyway promote the nuking of anything.
Cept my day old Chinese food from Blue Ginger.
Nuking things is bad. Unless edible.

The Tsar Bomba was approximately 50 Mega-tons, it was close enough to make no practical difference. Give or take a mega-ton or two at that scale is just semantics.

It was a scaled down version of a 100 MT device, but they were concerned it might kill the world. The Russians used such large devices because their guidance systems were garbage, so they went with the policy of "if it's big enough we just need to get close".

As far as a terrorist organization getting a device onto US soil? We can detect the radiation signature via satellite these days. So it's highly unlikely that it could be done without the Govt. knowing about it.

BlastedCaddy
reply to post by Perhaps

 

Thanks man.

Off to nuke DC and my boss's neighborhood.

PS.
Dear NSA,
What I meant was using the map to playfully pretend with a little sarcasm tied in.
I do not in anyway promote the nuking of anything.
Cept my day old Chinese food from Blue Ginger.
Nuking things is bad. Unless edible.

edit on 19-9-2013 by BlastedCaddy because: (no reason given)

edit on 19-9-2013 by BlastedCaddy because: DUMPLINGS!!!!!

Indeed, here's what we got:
chinese, perhaps, promote, using, nuke, blasted, DC, because, dumplings, no reason

You can expect a visit for sure!

I'd actually be a bit more than mad to learn they (either side...all sides) didn't have a few VERY high yield, VERY large warheads stashed back somewhere.

Not as weapons to kill humans as much as the other uses Nuclear weapons have. Much was explored in the 50's and much is explored today. Threats come from both.

The 50's explored all kinds of "Super-Conventional" uses for them, from Nuclear digging to terra-forming on local levels. Most of it ranks up there in feasibility with the "Gay Bomb" (someone really tried once...lol). However....they also explored total sterilization with them and they'd damn well better have some for the purpose. While BL IV labs exist for their contents to go from inside to outside by ANY means of any kind whatsoever? They need a way to end that little nightmare right on the spot.

Threats today, on the other hand, come from a whole different direction and are VERY BIG, not very small......as our exploring takes human eyes, if not bodies, into deep space and object tracking like never before. No one says a calamity of an Asteroid has to be an ELE. How about one quite a bit smaller that just happens to be headed for a spot in upper Manhattan by projections ....while still far enough outside the atmosphere to intercept and destroy? They'll have millions of the most unforgiving voters in history, out for blood that someone hadn't thought of that and built a few capable of doing more than making a big ugly crater on the side of one even a few kilometers across.

greencmp

BlastedCaddy
reply to post by Perhaps

 

Thanks man.

Off to nuke DC and my boss's neighborhood.

PS.
Dear NSA,
What I meant was using the map to playfully pretend with a little sarcasm tied in.
I do not in anyway promote the nuking of anything.
Cept my day old Chinese food from Blue Ginger.
Nuking things is bad. Unless edible.

edit on 19-9-2013 by BlastedCaddy because: (no reason given)

edit on 19-9-2013 by BlastedCaddy because: DUMPLINGS!!!!!

Indeed, here's what we got:
chinese, perhaps, promote, using, nuke, blasted, DC, because, dumplings, no reason

You can expect a visit for sure!

Drats.

reply to post by LibertysTeeth


I need to find something happier to read.

reply to post by LibertysTeeth


Nuclear weapons effects are determined by the 10 cube rule - that is increading the weapon yield tenfold
the damage radius increases by a factor of 2 (cube root of 10)

Here is the damage radius of a 20 mt blast showing the lethal blast radius

overpressure of 4.6 psi will collapse most structures short of a concrete bunker

500 rem exposure will result in death of at least half of those exposed

thermal effects show effect on exposed skin (assuming clear weather)

Thermal 39,835 meters 3rd degree burn
36,411 meters 2nd degree burn
30,696 meters 1st degree burn

Blast 19,410 meters 4.6 psi

Radiation 5,516 meters 500 rem

The program can be run using Microsoft Excel or on another device that uses fractional exponents

Take yield in tons (multiply kiloton yield by 1000, megaton by 1,000,000) divide yield by 2500

ie for 1kt weapon - y = 1000 tons divided by 2500

Thermal effects for 3rd degree burn y raised to .41 power

2nd degree y raised to .40

1st degree y raised to .38

Blast effects (4.6 psi overpressure) y raised to .33

Radiation (500 rem exposure) y raised to .19

It was found that using smaller warheads in pattern wou;ld create larger damage radius than single large
weapon

Largest weapon US deployed was 9 MT warhead for Titan II missile

Smallest weapon was warheads for "Davy Crockett" recoiless launcher 10 ton (.01 kt) or 20 tom (.02 kt)

reply to post by firefight


Opps forget one thing about weapon effects calculator

Damage radius is in kilometer

Multiply by 1000 to get results in meters

reply to post by LibertysTeeth


Here is another video, originally shown on History Channel cable network and still rebroadcast

DAY AFTER DISASTER shows effects of 10 kt terrorist bomb on Washington DC

www.youtube.com...