What If Every Nuclear Bomb On Earth Exploded at the Same Time

There is a bright flash of blinding light.  Cities around the world are consumed by mushroom clouds created by

nuclear

bomb

s.  Shock waves sweep across the

earth

, destroying

every

thing in their path. This is not just an isolated incident. All the

nuclear

weapons on the entire planet just

exploded

. The next few minutes will be filled with destruction, devastation and death. Most terrifying of all is that

what

comes after the initial explosions will be worse than the detonations themselves. The moment before all the nuclear weapons on Earth explode. There are currently approximately 3,750 active nuclear warheads in the world. However, humans have about 13,800 nuclear weapons at their disposal, as this figure also includes the number of nuclear weapons in reserve.

In this apocalyptic scenario,

every

one will explode at the

same

time

.   These devices are currently under the protection of a handful of governments around the world, but the United States and Russia control the vast majority of them, around 90% of the total. There are several different types of nuclear

bomb

s, but they can be divided into two main categories: fission bombs and fusion bombs. Milliseconds before all the nuclear weapons on Earth explode. For some unknown reason, all nuclear weapons are launched or detonated across the planet at the

same

time

.   Maybe world leaders will opt for mutually assured destruction to ensure that if they can't rule the world, no one can.

Or perhaps some unknown force, beyond our understanding, passes through our planet and reacts negatively with our nuclear stockpiles, causing all nuclear weapons to explode at once. Earth could just be a giant alien science experiment, and they've realized that humans are causing too many problems and therefore need to be removed from the equation. They decide that the best way to do this is to use their superior technology to make all the nuclear weapons go off at once. The aliens believe there is a kind of poetic justice in all of this, as this apocalyptic scenario will wipe out humanity using weapons that were created by human hands and should never have been stockpiled in the first place.

Regardless of the reason, the result of all of Earth's nuclear weapons exploding at once will have dire consequences. The two main types of nuclear bombs detonate in slightly different ways, but both take less than a second to explode. Fission bombs, or atomic bombs, such as those dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II, create a nuclear explosion by splitting the nuclei of atoms. 600 billionths of a second before all the nuclear weapons on Earth explode. An explosive is fired inside all the warheads which use fission reactions to generate a nuclear explosion. It propels a uranium-235 bullet through a narrow chamber toward a uranium-235 sphere surrounding a neutron generator.  The uranium bullet hits the sphere, penetrates it and continues to the neutron generator.   This causes the uranium atoms to split and creates a fission reaction.

Huge amounts of energy are released when the nuclei of atoms break apart.   As more and more reactions occur, the bomb detonates. A huge amount of energy is released when millions of nuclei split, ejecting neutrons from their nuclei. The radiation envelops the surrounding area; temperatures skyrocket. At the same moment that fission bombs begin their detonation process, fusion bombs do the same. These types of nuclear devices are known as thermonuclear or hydrogen bombs and take a few milliseconds longer to detonate than their cousins ​​that only use fission to achieve a nuclear explosion. This is because the process of creating a fusion reaction is a little more complicated.

The main difference is that instead of just splitting the nuclei of atoms, fusion bombs also fuse the nuclei. This generates even greater energy and causes exponentially more destruction. Thermonuclear bombs use high-energy radiation known as X-rays to start a fusion reaction.   There are two main steps in this process. First, the bombs need to generate fission reactions to create enough energy to allow fusion to begin.   When the bomb is activated, this initial fission reaction produces enough heat and pressure inside the bomb casing to cause the nuclei to fuse. The casing is made of uranium-238 along with lithium deuteride, which acts as a fuel source for the fusion reaction.

This casing surrounds a hollow rod of plutonium-239. Plutonium is found at the center of the hydrogen bomb and is the key to generating a fusion reaction.   When the fission reaction begins around the casing, it bombards the uranium-238 with X-rays. This increases the heat inside the cylinder to extreme levels. The uranium-238 casing overheats but protects the fuel and plutonium from being damaged. Massive amounts of pressure and energy cause the casing to expand and burn while exerting inward pressure against the deuterated lithium fuel. This pressure compresses the lithium deuterate to about 30 times its original size. Pressure is then exerted on the plutonium rod, which sends shock waves through its atoms and initiates a second fission reaction.

This causes the plutonium to emit more heat and radiation, leading to the release of neutrons from the nuclei of atoms. These free neutrons enter the lithium deuterate and force a reaction that forms tritium. Now the fuel for the bomb is composed of tritium-deuterium and deuterium-deuterium.   These two molecules begin to fuse as a result of the enormous heat and pressure released by the fission reactions around them. This produces even more heat, radiation and free neutrons. A chain reaction occurs when neutrons from the fusion reaction cause the uranium-238 left over from the initial fission reaction to produce even more radiation and heat.

This process continues and the bomb detonates, generating an explosion thousands of times larger than atomic bombs that only use fission.   The explosion is equivalent to approximately 10,000 kilotons of TNT exploding at once. 1 second after all of Earth's nuclear weapons explode. The location of each detonation across the planet is different. If all nuclear weapons are launched because nations are at war with each other, the devastation will likely be directed at major cities. If the bombs detonate in their silos and aboard the ships carrying them, the destruction will be limited to military installations. The location of any secret bases hiding nuclear weapons will quickly become apparent as they are consumed by nuclear explosions.

In reality, it does not matter why or how nuclear weapons explode, since the consequences of such a scenario will be the same. Wherever a nuclear bomb detonates, there will be a bright flash of light;   The area around the bomb will overheat as a fireball consumes everything in a 1,600-foot radius. Anyone and anything near the bomb will be instantly vaporized.   Temperatures within the blast radius will reach up to 150 million degrees Fahrenheit, so there will be nothing to recover once the explosion subsides. If the bomb is detonated at ground level, it will leave a crater about 1,378 feet wide and 300 feet deep.

Anyone looking in the direction of one of the nuclear explosions will go blind.   The image of a mushroom cloud will be etched on your retinas.   This disturbing sight will probably be the last thing they see. 10 seconds after all the nuclear weapons on Earth explode. Anyone within a 6.5 square mile radius of the explosion's epicenter will soon find themselves in big trouble. The explosion causes a drastic change in air pressure, creating a shock wave of superheated air.   It moves across the landscape, decimating cars, buildings and people in its path.   The speed and force of the shock wave not only knocks things over but completely destroys them.   You can't escape it and there is no chance of survival if you are within its reach.

People who are further away still suffer third degree burns. As hot air and intense radiation expand outward from the explosion site, anyone within 5 to 10 miles who is not killed by the shock wave will instantly feel their skin begin to burn and burn. form blisters. Their cells begin to denature and die. The pain is unfathomable as they scream and writhe on the ground, praying that death will take them and it will all end. Depending on how close someone is to the explosion and how much radiation their body absorbs, symptoms of radiation sickness can begin to develop in just a few minutes.   They begin to vomit, sweat, and lose control of their bowels.

Over time, the symptoms become so severe that they disappear due to radiation poisoning. 5 minutes after all the nuclear weapons on Earth

exploded

. Remnants of mushroom clouds still fill the sky. They no longer have their distinctive shape, but smoke and debris can be seen floating in the wind. Anyone who survived the initial explosions looks around in horror as the sky begins to darken. People who are lucky enough to not be near the explosions probably have no idea

what

is happening. There will be small hints that something is wrong, as the amount of electromagnetic radiation released by each nuclear bomb will wipe out electronic devices around the world.

Those unaffected will not be able to pick up any signals, as major cities have been leveled in the initial wave of destruction. Satellites no longer receive signals and radio towers are out of service.   Entire power grids go down and power plants begin to fail. If any of the nuclear weapons go haywire and detonate in space, the EMPs will destroy any satellites in the vicinity. The consequences of the explosions fall to Earth, covering large areas with radiation. In total, about 23 cubic miles of land have been destroyed by explosions across the planet. The matter that makes up the Earth was converted into heat and energy that is now beginning to heat the planet.  But this warm-up period will be brief.   On the horizon is the frozen hell that will be known as nuclear winter. 15 minutes after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded.

Debris begins to settle as fires rage across the planet. There are forest fires that consume forests, buildings and anything else that is flammable near nuclear explosions.   Fire departments are a thing of the past, as their resources have been destroyed and their personnel have died. There are no longer police or paramedics to help people who survived nuclear detonations.  It's every man for himself, as the only thing anyone can focus on is getting as far away from the scorching heat and deadly radiation as possible. About 90,000 square miles of buildings and infrastructure have been destroyed, equivalent to about 300 cities the size of New York.

Now everyone is desperately trying to evacuate to more rural areas of the planet. There is a great exodus out of the cities where chaos and panic break out. People are trampled under the feet of the masses. No matter what anyone does, it won't matter in the long run. The future holds nothing but more pain and suffering. Radiation-filled dust and particles are carried around the planet by winds and storms.   A poisonous rain falls from the sky. People who did not receive a lethal dose of radiation from the initial explosions will soon inhale contaminated particles. Your DNA will begin to mutate and your vital organs will begin to fail.

About 110,000 square miles of planet Earth are no longer safe to live on due to nuclear fallout. And this is just the beginning. The collective radiation generated by the detonation of every nuclear weapon on Earth will eventually cover the entire planet. In the first 15 minutes after all nuclear weapons explode, hundreds of millions of people will have died.   Billions more are exposed to radiation and will become ill in the near future. Everyone else will fight to survive, but in the end they will suffer the same fate: death from nuclear winter. 30 minutes after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded.

The radiation that is spreading across the planet begins to seep into plants and animals.   In the next few days, almost nothing will be safe to eat. The sky continues to darken as more and more smoke from wildfires burns across the planet. Debris that has been released into the atmosphere by nuclear detonations will circulate in the atmosphere, and in the hours and weeks to come, day will appear to turn to night as the sun's rays are blocked. 60 minutes after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded. The people who were unlucky enough to be looking towards the explosions whenWhen the nuclear bombs exploded, they begin to recover part of their vision.  Things seem blurry at first and tinted white, as if they are looking at the world illuminated by intense fluorescent lights.   If you were in shock while watching the explosion and didn't look away for several seconds, your eyesight will take much longer to recover and you may never get it back.

The planet's temperature continues to rise, but it will eventually stabilize and then begin to cool. It is estimated that even if just 100 nuclear bombs were to explode on Earth, they would spew enough debris into the atmosphere to cause a mini-nuclear winter.   But in this scenario, 130 times more nuclear weapons have just been detonated. It's only a matter of time before the sun's heat is blocked and radioactive snow begins to fall across the planet. 12 hours after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded. There are two groups of people who survive the initial explosions. The first group turned out to be close enough to the explosion that they received a huge dose of radiation and burns all over their bodies, but not close enough to be incinerated.

They are not doing very well because their internal organs are starting to shut down and the number of mutated cells is growing uncontrollably inside their bodies. Their skin has turned a deep red color as they are cooked from the inside out.   They struggle to get further away from the explosion sites and look for help, but find no help. Everyone else runs away too.  People who were exposed to that much radiation probably won't survive the first 24 hours after all the nuclear bombs go off on Earth. The second group of people, which constitutes virtually all of those still alive, were far enough from the nuclear explosions to receive only a small initial radiation dose or no radiation at all.

This will change in the coming days as the entire planet is covered in radiation, but as of now, these groups of people are hunkering down and waiting for information on what to do next that will never come. Over time, they will realize that they are alone and need to fend for themselves. They will look for basic needs like food and water.   Unfortunately, it is these things that will eventually kill them. 1 day after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded. The sky continues to darken; People continue to get sicker and sicker due to radiation from the air they breathe and the water they put into their bodies.

More and more people are dying.   Fires continue to rage across the planet. The Earth is slowly turning into a dark ball of death. 5 days after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded. The sun and stars can no longer be seen in the sky. Ash, smoke and dust from nuclear explosions and burning debris have engulfed the entire planet as they are carried by newly formed wind currents. The amount of energy and heat that nuclear explosions spew into the atmosphere has altered climates and weather patterns around the world. Rain patterns change, flooding areas that receive little rain with gallons of toxic precipitation.   Other parts of the world will be plunged into an endless drought that will eventually turn entire regions into lifeless deserts.  Entire ecosystems begin to die because their main source of energy, the sun, can no longer reach them.

Plants cannot photosynthesize without sunlight, and so carbon dioxide levels skyrocket in the atmosphere as humans and other surviving animals on Earth find it increasingly difficult to breathe. There probably aren't many people left five days after the initial explosions, as billions have succumbed to radiation, fires, disputes with other humans, or simply given up.   For those who remain, they are witnessing the beginning of nuclear winter. But beyond the smoky layer of the atmosphere, something even scarier is happening. When the bombs first detonated, they caused the atmosphere to overheat, producing nitrogen oxides. Now, sunlight returned to space by smoke and dust in our atmosphere is creating more nitrogen oxides.

The problem with nitrogen oxide is that it destroys ozone. This means that in a few years, when the smoke finally clears, the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays will bombard the Earth's surface. This could cause a drastic rise in temperature and harmful mutations to occur in anything that was initially tough enough to survive the nuclear end of the world. He probably won't have much life left at that point. But some incredibly resistant lichens and fungi may still survive, and there will be pockets of bacteria across the planet, but almost all the plants and animals on the Earth's surface will have perished.   Surprisingly, Extremophiles that thrive near hydrothermal vents may be unaffected in the days and years after all of Earth's nuclear weapons explode.   Ocean waters will absorb the radiation, but creatures at those depths may not receive lethal doses or may not be able to tolerate it.

These incredible organisms will probably continue to function as usual, even if all life on the surface has been wiped out. 1 month after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded. Nuclear winter has begun. The planet's temperature has dropped dramatically as sunlight has not reached the surface in weeks.  A mix of snow and soot from still-burning fires falls from the sky. It is not clean white snow, but contains dirty flakes with charred remains of what used to be buildings, plants and animals. The human population on Earth has reached extinction levels. There may still be some survivors, and some astronauts aboard the International Space Station may still be alive as they watch in horror as the planet that was once their home is consumed by darkness.   But even these last human beings will eventually succumb to the dangers of a post-apocalyptic world.

Six months after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded. The trees have lost all their leaves. Hardy plants, such as evergreens, try to survive, but even they die from lack of sunlight and contaminated water. Deep in the Arctic, lichens and grasses have survived, but, like everything else, they are also beginning to become extinct. Some of these organisms will become trapped in the growing ice and permafrost that spreads across the planet. Once the nuclear winter ends, these areas will begin to melt and the preserved seeds could begin to grow again. Now that there are no more plants, all the animals that once depended on them will also perish.

Six months after the nuclear bombs exploded, the planet's megafauna, such as wolves, deer, elephants, lions, etc., will probably be dead due to radiation from the air or the food they are eating. If they weren't already dead, they would be very sick. Some may have developed mutations in their cells that have caused them to become monsters. Predators will now eat absolutely anything they can sink their teeth into.   Bears with singed and matted fur scavenge the bodies of long-dead animals. Tigers covered in rotting flesh and with a ferocious temperament stalk their already sick and weakened prey. These animals are moved only by pain and hunger.  They will do anything to survive, even if it means killing and eating their own kind.

The world has become the stuff of nightmares. At the same time, any human beings remaining on the planet's surface ooze blood and pus due to radiation burns on their skin. Perhaps they had been surviving deep in a cave system that protected them from much of the radiation, but they eventually had to leave to find resources.  At that moment, the radiation would consume them like any other living being on the planet. They would get very sick, very quickly. Those preparing for the end of the world and the super-rich who have reserved their places in shelters and bunkers for the end of the world may still be alive.

There are some pretty ingenious setups that would allow humans to survive underground for years. However, this would only be possible if these people were somehow not caught in the initial explosions.   Someone would have to be very close to their shelter at the time of detonation in order to escape the carnage that was unfolding. Perhaps these people are the future of the human species. It will be a sad day when they emerge from their bunkers again only to find a planet decimated and lifeless. 5 years after all the nuclear weapons on Earth exploded. Any human lucky enough to survive in an apocalyptic shelter located miles away from the explosion sites will be able to leave.

Radiation levels have now gone down.   There will still be higher than normal radiation levels, but they probably won't be lethal. However, after five years of intense cooling due to nuclear winter, the entire planet has become a frozen wasteland.  Ice sheets and glaciers extend from the poles to the depths of the oceans. Since sunlight hasn't reached the planet's surface in years, even Earth's equatorial regions are now frozen. After five years of nuclear winter, debris in the atmosphere is finally beginning to settle.   Sunlight breaks through and temperatures begin to stabilize. Natural processes cause the planet to reach a new balance.

This is what happens with our planet; It is incredibly resistant.   If all the world's nuclear weapons were detonated at once, the destruction would be immense, wiping out most life on Earth while also altering the planet's temperature and weather patterns. However, given enough time, the radiation and debris in the atmosphere would dissipate and the climate would return to its normal cycles. Life would likely find a way to continue, and eventually plants and animals would repopulate the planet. Humans probably wouldn't make it, and if they did, the number of individuals would be so low that the gene pool would probably be riddled with diseases and genetic mutations.

Therefore, there is a good chance that even if humans could survive underground during the years that nuclear winter persists on the surface, in the decades following its reemergence, the species would become extinct due to lack of resources and low genetic diversity. If all of Earth's nuclear weapons exploded at the same time, there would be flashes of light, immediate destruction, and long-term climate change. Most life on Earth would probably not survive the years of nuclear winter, but new life would emerge to inhabit the brave new world that would emerge from the disaster.  We can only hope that any species that evolves after the consequences of all the nuclear bombs subside will be smarter than humans.

There is really no reason why we should have more than 13,000 nuclear weapons on our planet.   A few nuclear weapons are enough to deter an enemy;  Dozens of nuclear weapons can destroy a country.   Hundreds of nuclear weapons could take the lives of millions of people and alter the planet's climate.   Thousands of nuclear weapons could end life on all continents. So, it's clear that this incredibly scary “what if” scenario could get out of control very, very quickly if we're not careful. Now watch "What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning? Minute by minute."   Or see "What if Japan was never hit by nuclear bombs?"