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A nuclear weapon crashes down on a location bringing Earth's greatest destructive forces with it. Not only is the location assaulted by immense heat, radiation, atmospheric pressure change, seismic shock, and sonic oscillations but up to decades even centuries later the weapon leaves its mark ; an impact crater and fallout. The amount of power is so massive it is measured in megatons of yield; megatons of dynamite. The first effect of a weapon is an extremely powerful force that is released instaneously as the weapon detonates. The quickest traveling form of energy known to man, being light, is released in the form of photons and neutronic radiation. About eighty percent of the light seen from a distance is photons that have been released in tightly packed bundles. For this reason they can blind a person up to ten miles away from the outer most destructive forces of the bomb. More specifically the tight group of photons makes up a form of light that is what's referred to as a perfect energy. Unstoppable until different factors cause the group to start dispersing and taking separate paths of flight. It is this perfect energy that destroys everything in its path by destroying the bonds between the atoms that make it up. The slower neutronic radiation is a form of energy created from neutrons being forced from the nuclei and propelled at great speeds. These two energies combined literally tear apart atomic bonds and are unstoppable until they loose their cohesion. The light that at the epicenter usually is about a quadrillion times brighter than the sun per surface area unit. The heat produced by matter being exposed to such high level of such powerful energy produces temperatures which are sixty to one hundred million degrees centigrade. This is about ten thousand times the surface temperature of the sun. Matter exposed to these temperatures is turned to plasma in a matter of one to three milliseconds. The heat also causes what is known as a flash incineration of all gases within a certain radius depending on the yield of the weapon. About ten milliseconds after detonation is when the largest group of destructive forces are released. The flash incineration take place in a sphere that extends with the weapon's detonation point being at the center, the size of the sphere depends on the yield of the weapon. The air underneath the sphere is denser so when after the flash incineration occurs the air underneath rushes in first to replace the incinerated air. This rush of air creates an updraft which pulls everything within a certain area upward. This upward motion is continued by the rising fireball. As the fireball, which is the superheated plasma form of the original nuclear fuels, rises it incinerates all air it touches which continues the original updraft phenomenon. The updraft created by this heat usually extends into the upper atmosphere, carrying irradiated particles with it. Once the gases cool they reform into ozone damaging nitric oxides. It is approximated that for each megaton yield of a weapon is releases some five thousand tons of nitric oxides, considering that modern nuclear weapons normally have a yield of one hundred megatons or greater, one modern nuclear weapon would release about one billion pounds of the gaseous form of nitric oxide. The amount of nitric oxide would be much greater than all of the internal combustion engines' output in one year. The atmospheric pressure change created by the flash incineration causes building outside the incineration range to implode. The PSI change and pressure change range is proportional to the weapon's yield. The highest recorded level of pressure change has been during a nuclear test and it was a pressure change of fifty PSI. To give you an idea of the magnitude of destruction that would produce consider these facts. At one PSI windows shatter. At three PSI houses would collapse and people would receive injuries from the pressure alone. At five PSI most buildings would collapse and there would be pressure caused fatalities. At ten PSI hardened and reinforced would be severely damaged or collapse and fatalities would be wide spread. At twenty PSI reinforced and hardened wartime buildings would be severely damaged or collapse and fatalities would be almost one hundred percent. The heat release from the weapon contributes to most of the destruction following the initial photon and neurtonic radiation release. Nuclear weapons about ten milliseconds after detonation release a burst of sound so intense it forms a visible depression wave. This sound wave on a scientific level is a field of particles that being intensely vibrated. As the wave travels outward from the epicenter it decreases in intensity. Basically as the wave encounters matter it causes it to oscillate to the point of destroying the atomic bonds which hold it together. The sonic depression wave also contributes to the atmospheric pressure change because as it travels it pushed air out of its path. These sonic depression waves usually travel at about ten to thirteen times the speed of sound because as it begins the air rushing back in and is very thin compared to the normal air density. The sound heard from a distance outside of the weapons reach is usually traveling the normal speed of sound and therefore doesn't cause any damage. As the wave travels it obviously has to travel through normal air eventually which causes it to slow down. The sonic depression wave is responsible for causing a gust of wind to travel for several miles past the destructive reach of the weapon. The highest recorded wind speed during a nuclear test was a gust of three hundred and fifty miles per hour and this was one mile outside the weapon's destructive reach radius. This wind is partially responsible for nuclear weapons' incredibly far away felt effects. In fact the sonic depression wave and the wind are the effects of the weapon which are able to travel the farthest away from the epicenter. As all these effects are taking place a great amount of force is slammed into the earth's surface. There is two results of this force, an impact crated and a seismic shock. The size of the impact crater is proportional to the size of the weapon's yield. Most impact craters created by modern nuclear weapons testing can be seen in satellite pictures that capture the entire state of Arizona. The seismic shock produced by nuclear weapons is also proportional to the yield of the weapon. In most modern nuclear tests seismic shocks powerful enough to destroy reinforced buildings have been recorded at ranges from five to seven miles from the epicenter. During nuclear tests in Arizona very weak seismic activity has been recorded several states away. The matter which is pulled into the upper atmosphere by the updraft created is referred to as fallout. About twelve to twenty-four hours after detonation fallout begins to rain on the location where to weapon was detonated. This fallout is visible because each piece is roughly the size of a baseball. The lighter pieces fall last because they are not as affected by gravity. Depending on where the weapon is detonated and the strength of the upper atmosphere winds the small fallout can be deposited half way around the world. In fact fallout from a nuclear test at Bikini Atoll was found caught in the upper atmospheric winds over Africa. Radioactive fallout is detected using a satellite designed to find earth based nuclear weapons Bibliography: Word Count: 1315
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