If every nuclear device on Earth were used in a WWIII scenario, what would the planet be like?

Question

Would they sky be scorched? Ash everywhere? No oxygen? Battery acid oceans? How long would such nuclear winter last? How would Earth look from space? Months later, if ISS astronauts had to land for supplies, could they?

I ask this because I'm developing a story idea. If you could, please describe what nuclear winter would be like? How alien would it be?

Answer 1

A full scale nuclear war would have a few major impacts.

First, there are the direct effects of the blast itself. There is a bright flash that will blind anyone looking at it, a wave of heat that can bake the paint off a car, then wind that will knock over buildings.

Second, Each blast throws debris and dust, contaminated with radiation, high into the air. The radioactive dust and ash (called fallout) falls to the earth, gets rained out even, and contaminates the ground. Radiation sickness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_sickness) hits anyone who accidentally ingests it (It's in the air, and lots of times is like fine dust so you can't even see it, so you can breathe it for hours without realizing it). Radiation sickness is nasty, kills the bone marrow. Makes you vomit, kills slowly in low doses, fast and painful in large. Luckily, the radiation eventually goes away after a few months--but in the case of a full scale nuclear event, could hang around much longer....

Third, the question of the nuclear winter. The nuclear winter is theoretical, meaning it might not happen. If it did though, it would be catastrophic. The reason they call it a nuclear winter is because the dust kicked up by the blasts could theoretically get into the upper atmosphere, spreading over the whole globe and dimming the sun for months. The effect would be that the surface of the earth would cool, and winter woulld set in, killing loads of the life on earth. In effect, this would be the start of a small Ice age.

To answer your specific questions about possible effects:

The sky can't really be scorched like in the Matrix.

There would be lots of Ash, it would be like snow for a while. And it would be radioactive, making planting crops very hard.

Battery Acid oceans? No. The oceans would swallow up what we'd done so quickly and with relatively little direct effect to it's composition, except perhaps that a lot of marine life would die. Radiation does not make acid. Acid is a chemical that is highly reactive with other compounds. It is something that is corrosive. Pure oxygen is VERY corrosive, as oxygen is highly reactive. So reactive in fact, that you can't have fire without it. What's important here though is that radiation does not make water into acid.

The nuclear winter, as it is theoretical, could last months or years. As for your story, you could keep it going as long as you want.

A nuclear war from space, I think you could imagine. The nuclear winter--well, first, the astronauts would not be able to see the ground--what with all the dust. When it started to settle, the Earth would be covered in snow. It would look white.

ISS astronauts would be screwed unless there was a capsule up there when the war happened. The CRV (Crew return Vehicle) was cancelled.

How alien would it be? Just really cold and radioactive. Lots of dead animals.

Finally, something like the story you are contemplating has already been done, you might want to check it out--it was a movie, unfortunately I can't remember the name of it. Basically It was about astronauts on a space station who watched the world burn, then had to return because they were running out of supplies. You're going to want to make your story stand out somehow...Best of luck!!!

EDIT:::

All the nuclear weapons on the earth couldn't "remove the crust" of our planet. That would take something the size of the moon hitting us...

Also, while mutations would be more commonplace when there is lots of radiation around, They would most likely result in sterilization and still births. There would be some freaky kids around though...

Wow. People really do have some wild misconceptions about the power and effects of Nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons will not turn the earth to dust. There are lots of resources available, please look them up before answering a question like this; don't just throw out the wild things you might have heard from those who don't know any better, or worse, things out of nightmares.

EDIT 2:::

Yes, higher level airburst detonations lower the amount of dust and fallout, but don't eliminate it. 5000 feet isn't very high when you're talking an explosive that has a 20 mile (105,000 feet) blast radius. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airburst). The fact is, research shows that airburst MINIMIZES the effects, maximizes the blast effectiveness, making it preferrable, but since minimized effects are still almost as bad as ground bursting, the best thing to do is try to avoid nuclear escalation if at all possible.

Also, for the original answer, I forgot to mention the EMP, electromagnetic pulse. This is caused by the Gamma Rays given off by the explosion. The short description is that the pulse causes anything with wiring to generate a lot more electricity than it is usually supposed to, resulting in electronics getting fried--this even would effect high tension lines on the large scale, possibly burning out relays and overloading power stations.

Also, someone said that oxygen would be destroyed or something due to burning. Not quite right. Oxygen is the cause of burning--Burning is also known as OXIDIZING. Oxygen molecules have to have fuel, something to react with, before they are burned out of the atmosphere. In a nuclear event, they might get heated up, but there is still nothing for the O2 molecules to react with, so they'll just cool back down and the O2 level will be unchanged.

Answer 2

What every answerer is forgetting is that only a small amount of the nuclear weapons in the world are targeted for ground-zero detonation, i.e., at zero altitude. Studies during the Cold War confirmed that a higher-level detonation, around 5,000-6,000 feet, would cause more widespread damage over a greater surface area without kicking up as much dust and debris, ergo, causing very little fallout. Granted, the few that are targeted at ground level would kick up a great deal of dust, but no more than 1 or 2 Krakatoa-class volcano eruptions (this is mostly due to "tactical" nuclear weapons, the artillery-shell and unguided-rocket delivered variety, in the low kilotons range). To give you an idea of that, the world temperature averages dropped around 10 degrees Farenheit for several years; it caused shorter crop seasons worldwide.

The fireballs resulting from all the explosions would cause a great loss of oxygen, no doubt, but what is even worse would be the overpressures and searing heat all the explosions would cause. It would seriously change all the wind and weather patterns for many years.

Answer 3

The United States alone has more than enough warheads to remove the entire crust of the earth. Of course, to be completely realistic, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) would probably come into play. The chances of every warhead in the world being detonated at the same time is very low, more likely, several countries would launch weapons, targeted at the nuclear arsenals of other countries. As for the ISS astronauts, they would see quite a few fireworks, possibly be affected by the EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) created by warheads, whether or not the ionosphere (atmosphere) could dampen the pulse is beyond me. Also, astronauts, provided they had a way to re-enter earth, would find more than enough residual radiation to kill them quickly, even after a few months. Nuclear winter would definitely ensue, lasting a few year at the least.

Answer 4

If this scenario was to happen the earth would by like Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII - devoid of all human life. All infrastructure would be destroyed. We would have nuclear fallout in every corner of the world - thereby killing vast majority of the life.

Insects are about the only creatures that I'm aware of that can survive radiation exposure.

Answer 5

You answered your own question! All of the above is my answer. You wouldn't want to live there/here, but then you wouldn't have to and neither would anyone else. Who would survive, do you imagine?? Whoever was unfortunate enough to survive the nuclear war would soon die (and hideously) of radiation sickness. What is the plot of your novel?? I suggest that you have your protagonists residing in a lunar colony which is self-sufficient and self-perpetuating where they can view the carnage below from that position of relative safety! Good luck with your story, and may it remain ever fictitious!!

Answer 6

Some people have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, why would they need that; Also, many people are Driving guided missiles with their vehicles, and shouldn't be on the road....!!

Answer 7

The late great Planet earth Al.

Answer 8

'Total devastation' is the first thought that came to my mind immediately after reading your question. Wouldn't be able to say much, but LIFE itself would come to a standstill then, I guess.
What I feel is, If the WW III is fought with nuclear devices, WW IV would be fought with bows & arrows.

Looking forward to reading your novel. Don't you worry on its success; its gonna be great. Best of luck!

Answer 9

I can assure you that if every nuclear device were detonated, simultaneously or otherwise, the whole world would turn to dust. Such is the quantity and force of these weapons.

Answer 10

it would look like mars except that it would be radioactive with deep caverns. The ozone layer would be goneso there would be no atmosphere no nothing plants would wilt and die. Without an atmosphere the water would be turned to gas and thats just for starters