A 10-year-old nuclear blast simulator is experiencing so much traffic that it crashes all the time. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is home to both Chernobyl as well as Europe’s largest nuclear power station, has caused this increase in traffic.
Nukemap was created by Alex Wellerstein in 2012. He is a historian of science and nuclear weapons and a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. It allows you to see the area of any range of nuclear weapon attack, laid over a specific city or place.
You can choose from a variety of nuclear bomb yields. These include the 20-kilotons Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 and the 100-megaton “Tsar Bomba” bomb that was designed by the Soviet Union.
This is a single warhead from a Russian SARMAT, these carry several, some may be twice as powerful.
The top right is the radiation if this is a ground burst above Baltimore if the wind is NE.https://t.co/E6DxyPnx3x
Spend time here before you want to advocate for WWIII. pic.twitter.com/KFzFywoOhS
— POWER ROB (@PowerRobMusic) March 7, 2022
50 megaton nuke and my old hometown is charred toast. 😬😬😬😬😬https://t.co/Vn7MdaxgnD#WorldWarIII #WWIII pic.twitter.com/w4gvykevP5
— American Pi #FreePalestine 🇵🇸 #HandsOffCuba 🇨🇺 (@American3141592) March 4, 2022
It also displays the radius of the initial fireball produced by the devices.
It also breaks down the damage further and shows where you could expect severe burns. Wellerstein describes how third-degree burns can penetrate the skin’s layers and often cause no pain as they damage the pain nerves. These can result in severe scarring and disability, which can lead to amputation.
The maps were first created by Wellerstein to help him understand the weapons.
After being published in several tabloid newspapers across the UK, the map went viral. It has now gone viral again, after concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In recent days, people have been flooding the map. This prompted its creator to create a mirror site to allow users to continue accessing it.
If you are having trouble connecting to NUKEMAP right now (it is overwhelmed with traffic a lot of the time), you can use this authorized mirror of it: https://t.co/QADzsUO49m
— Alex Wellerstein (@wellerstein) February 28, 2022
[H/T: IFL Science]
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