If we had an iron cube, 50 by 50 by 50 feet, with walls ten feet thick, what would happen if.........?

Question

a 60 megaton nuclear bomb was exploded inside the iron cube?

Answer 1

HUGE EXPLOSION; GAMMA RAY FLASH; ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE; SOUND SHOCK WAVE IRON CUBE REDUCED TO IONIZED GAS IN HUGE DUST CLOUD MUSHROOM CLOUD INTO STRATOSPHERE

Answer 2

The Hiroshima (~15 KT) and Nagasaki (21 KT) A-bombs were small kiloton bombs, not 1/2 MT bombs as one answer suggested. The U.S. did not have fusion bombs until later, after WWII was over. Megaton bombs etc. are all fusion based weapons.

Underground tests of much smaller bombs, like at the Trinity Site in New Mexico, required more than a thousand feet of solid rock and dirt to contain their effects. These tests were all below 1 MT. The bigger U.S. tests were atmospheric tests in remote parts of the Pacific.

The largest test was by the Soviet Union. It tested a 50 MT package, but that was done in the atmosphere. So, to a point, there has never been a 60 MT nuclear explosion. But given that thousands of feet of rock are needed to contain very much smaller bombs (about 150 KT at most), I really doubt your cube would contain 60 MT, let alone something way smaller.

Answer 3

The cube would be vaporised in a millisecond and the explosion would continue

Answer 4

I prefer actual experimentation to theory in this case. Try it out!

Answer 5

hiroshima bomb had 0.5 megatons so i guess it will destroy the cube and kill about 6 billion people

Answer 6

VAPORIZED!

with lots of radioactive iron fallout......