Nuke Map is a GoogleMaps-based Nuclear effects planning tool. Developed by Alex Wellerstein and hosted on Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog, it allows you to visualize the effects of nuclear weapons on geographic areas you are familiar with. You select the location and weapon; Nukemap does the rest.
I chose a local area and a 100kt terrorist weapon. Looks like we’d lose Jungle Golf. Fortunately, the Dairy Queen would be spared, although I wouldn’t eat there for a few hundred years or so.
Gallows humor aside, it’s an interesting look into a threat that many have forgotten. You can also try Nukemap 3D.
Tags: Nukemap
Only the most sane people do not forget about nukes.
“Local Area”… I was stationed at Little Creek. I guess it’s time to play a game…
Very cool tool. Assumes flat terrain, etc., but still quite interesting as an unclassified and somewhat coarse model (not meant as an insult).
I wonder if I was just put on some list for playing around with this.
if your not on a list yet then your doing something wrong, only the criminals and terrorist or off the list
Here’s a game I’ve been playing: Pick a city. Pick a street. See how many casualties I can rack up with one 1MT airburst.
I just hit Sion Flyover, Mumbai 4,331,590 dead. 4,518,320 wounded. New personal record.
I’m laughing my ass off while also feeling slightly sick to my stomach. Does anyone remember a game called defcon from the mid 00’s? It had a similar effect.
Karachi, Sangster St. 4,655,030
Mumbai has the population, but not the density (32nd).
Using your 1MT airburst and messing around with Delhi (2nd in population, 15th in density), I’m at 2,907,080 dead, 6,083,110 wounded (so far). That works out to 8,990,190 total casualties vs. your 8,849,910…
It’s this kind of calculus that makes watching Dr. Strangelove in Hi-Def that much more of a lesson: You can clearly read all of the titles on the spines of the binders piled up in front of Gen. Turgidson (George C. Scott) whilst he’s sitting in the War Room.
And the back cover of his June 1962 Playboy:) when he grabs everything off the table when he finds out the Russian Ambassador is coming into the “WAR ROOM”
You win. Looking a population density was smart. I wouldn’t have thought about that.
I’m not anything even approaching an expert on any of this but my guess is that the fatality numbers are really conservative. Even assuming a single isolated detonation I don’t see how any government or the international community could possibly recover and treat so many casualties in any timely manner. People would succumb to easily treatable wounds.
Yeah, the fatality numbers are very conservative: All that is being looked at is blast/shock wave and radiation exposure. You are right, there is no way a government or the international community could respond to anything like this in a timely manner besides buckle. I would be very surprised if the fatalities didn’t ultimately double.
I don’t know how if it could be done, but, the software “expansion pack” should include effects of destroying power generation/distribution and water treatment facilities. A secondary consideration would be hospitals and fire fighting / emergency response facilities.
oceanfront nuked;nothing of value lost.
Neptune’s even still there. Maybe you could do the world a favor and move it over to Peabody’s? Looks like you flattened it with the shockwave, but maybe we should directly nuke.it from orbit to be sure.
Nuclear Weapons make me sleepy…
28 Degrees 37 Minutes 11.23 Seconds North
77 Degrees 10 Minutes 40.72 Seconds East
2,956,710 Dead, 6,045,120 Injured -> 9,001,830 Total Casualties.
Sorry, my Delhi rankings may have confused…
Delhi has the 2nd largest population in India, 10th globally, and is 15th in density, globally. The coordinates above are for Delhi. Perhaps the most horrific aspect of this exercise is that the 9 million causalities are in a population of only 11 million.
Used to draw these maps with paper and pencil in emergency management class 12 years ago (but with some wind and landscape coefficients). We all wished to have something like that to check our results.
great, you literally just killed me. I live in birdneck apartments on laskin. funny seeinng where I live on this map. but sadly I am dead now 🙁