3 ms·
A quick check on Nukemap suggests that a 12MT explosion at ground level produces a crater 210m deep and with a radius of 0.88km at the outer edge so that requir
by arethuza 7y ago
A quick check on Nukemap suggests that a 12MT explosion at ground level produces a crater 210m deep and with a radius of 0.88km at the outer edge so that requirement seems a bit optimistic....
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
- lostlogin 7y agoPresumably the surface type matters. Deep soil or clay versus rock must change things?
- wcoenen 7y agoNuclear warheads are not designed to be detonated at ground level. The optimum burst height for maximum damage (presumably not to bunkers, but to other structures) goes up with the bomb yield. For megaton yields that altitude will be several km.
- arethuza 7y agoFor soft targets (e.g. cities) an air burst would be used - but for hard targets a ground burst (or even penetration) would be used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_burst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_burst Some weapons even allowed for "laydown delivery" where weapons would be on the ground for a bit before detonating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laydown_delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laydown_delivery From what I recall, the really large weapons (10MT-25MT) were mainly intended, at least in the latter stages of the Cold War, to be used against hard targets.