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15,000 nuclear warheads detonated at once?

By Swapnil Patel

What would possibly happen if we detonated every single nuclear warhead on earth at the same time, at one place?

There are more than 15,000 nuclear weapons currently on Earth. It is believed that the US and Russian arsenals are individually capable to a complete wipe-out of life from Earth. While the United States of America has about 6,900 nukes, Russia has above 7,000. The average yield of the Russian nukes is about 700-800 kiloton TNT equivalent, each. The question here is, what "can" happen if every single warhead on earth is stockpiled at one place and and detonated at the exact same time?
Considering the number of nukes, the total yield of the global nuclear arsenal is roughly 6400 Megatons of TNT. If, we were to stockpile all the nukes available, and detonate them at once, that is the amount of energy produced.

en.wikipedia.org

Going through the data, we would have about 26.77 exajoules or 26.77x10^18 J of energy. If you consider the Earth's rotational kinetic energy, its about 2.13x10^29 J. So, it wont be sufficient to stop earth from rotating but it can have dire consequences. Lets compare this number to some natural and man made disasters.

The average cyclones usually release an energy of about 9 megatons of TNT per minute.
MSH80 eruption mount st helens 05-18-80-dramatic-edit.jpg
St. Helens Explosion; en.wikipedia.org



The 1980 eruption of St. Helens, released about 24 MT TNT.
Krakatoa eruption lithograph.jpg
Kraktoa Explosion; en.wikipedia.org




The 1883 Krakatoa eruption, Indonesia, released about 200 MT TNT equivalent energy. The explosion was so intense, it could be heard as far as Mauritius, 4800km away. The loudness of the explosion at 160 km away was about 180dB and generated tsunamis in east and westward direction.

The explosion we are talking about is 32 times bigger than the Krakatoa. It can cause mass destruction across the planet and a complete nuclear winter which can last millions of years.



If you want to know more about Nukes, do checkout this cool video from Vsauce.




Thankyou!
Have a good Day.
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