How would nuclear war destroy the Earth?

(Baonghean.vn) - Witnessing the escalation of nuclear weapons worldwide, scientists have come up with a terrifying scenario for humanity and the Earth if one day nuclear war breaks out.

Nuclear war, or atomic war, is a war in which nuclear weapons are used. Unlike conventional war, nuclear war has a much greater level and scope of destruction and causes long-lasting consequences for many years, even decades after the war.

A large-scale nuclear war could lead to the destruction of all life forms on Earth. And could "send" our blue planet back to its primitive, early days.

Nuclear Weapons: Power or Destruction?

To date, only two nuclear bombs have been used in war, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan) during World War II. Both bombs showed the world their terrible destructive power.

But that does not mean that nuclear stockpiles have decreased, especially after the Cold War, the number of nuclear warheads increased rapidly.

Currently, there are 9 countries in the world that possess nuclear weapons, with a total of nearly 16,000 nuclear warheads according to statistics from the Arms Control Association (ACA).

The Titan II ICBM carried a W53 Mt warhead, making it the most powerful US nuclear weapon of the Cold War.

Potential of nuclear states in the world.

With such different potentials among nuclear states, a nuclear war, if it were to occur, could also have very different levels of severity.

After all, the disaster of a war, no matter how large or small, has huge, multifaceted and long-term consequences for humanity around the world.

How does nuclear war "distort" the Earth?

The researchers posed the problem with the hypothesis of the consequences of a nuclear war at two different levels. They emphasized that this is just a hypothesis and is not aimed at any country.

At a small level

Occurred in a narrow area of ​​the country, in which each side detonated 50 small bombs (100 in total) of 15 koloton type, equivalent to the bomb in Hiroshima in 1945.

The first disaster will be the mass killing of people in the area of ​​the bomb explosion. This death is mainly due to mechanical reasons such as: Increased pressure, strong winds from 250 to 400 km/h causing houses and electricity poles to collapse...

Illustration photo.

The nuclear disaster would kill hundreds of millions of people instantly. Not to mention, the temperature would rise to thousands of degrees, causing fires across the region.

In the aftermath, survivors would continue to be exposed to radiation from scattered bomb fragments, leading to early death or prolonged illness and slow death.

What about the Earth and living things?

A small-scale nuclear war would reduce the Earth's temperature by 2 to 3 degrees. Annual rainfall would also decrease by 9%.

With 100 nuclear warheads exploding together, 5 million tons of black carbon would be compressed into the atmosphere. It would absorb heat from the Sun, preventing it from reaching the Earth's surface.

The photo shows black carbon blocking sunlight and will kill humans.

Over time, the black carbon falls as rain, but scientists cannot determine exactly when it disappears from the atmosphere.

After one year, the average temperature across the Earth will decrease by 1.1 degrees Celsius. After five years, the Earth's temperature will decrease by 3 degrees Celsius.

But 20 years from now, the Earth's temperature will have risen and we will be only 1 degree Celsius colder than before nuclear war broke out.

At the comprehensive level

This level occurs when countries use large numbers of nuclear weapons to attack an entire country, including military and civilian targets. Such an attack is intended to destroy the entire economic, social, and military infrastructure of a country through overwhelming nuclear attack.

This is one of the disasters that caused humanity to self-destruct. (Illustration photo).

A nuclear war of this scale could result in the extinction of the human race. Or, a small number of survivors (those in areas far from the war) would have a standard of living and life expectancy that would be similar to pre-medieval times for centuries.

In addition, it will also destroy the ecosystem and have a terrible impact on the Earth's climate. "Nuclear winter" is a hypothesis that American scientists put forward in the 80s of the 20th century. Researchers believe that after a nuclear war, the Earth's weather and climate will be severely affected.

A nuclear war would cause the Earth's surface temperature to drop dramatically.

That is, a nuclear war would cause the Earth's surface temperature to drop dramatically. Nuclear explosions in the atmosphere would cause a large amount of dust to "travel" into the atmosphere.

As a result, most of the solar radiation entering the atmosphere is absorbed by this nuclear dust layer and the amount of sunlight reaching Earth is significantly reduced.

The sky was covered with smoke and dust and became dark, so trees could not live, leading to a rapid decrease in oxygen levels and life also withered.

Obviously, a nuclear war, no matter how big or small, would have great harm and cause immeasurable death to people, not only within the scope of one or two participating countries but also have a wide impact. Even for all people around the world; without excluding any country.

Therefore, as long as nuclear weapons exist, the fear of Doomsday causing the Earth to return to prehistoric times several million years ago will always be present.

Kim Ngoc

(Synthetic)