“It will split the Earth in half”: common myths about nuclear weapons

Nuclear weapons are the means that today supposedly keep humanity from a third world war. Meanwhile, despite its destructive power, many facts about this weapon are nothing more than a myth created during the Cold War.

Before discussing the above-mentioned misconceptions, it is worth recalling that nuclear weapons have, fortunately, been used only twice in the entire history of mankind. Two bombs were dropped in 1945 by the American Air Force on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.



In turn, the first myth is connected with this event. Many believe that Japan capitulated when faced with the incredible destructive power of nuclear weapons.

However, during the “regular” bombing of Tokyo, the Americans caused much more damage than in the case of the dropping of “Baby” and “Fat Man”. In fact, Japan capitulated after the USSR entered the war, which was indicated by the emperor in the corresponding document.

The second myth about atomic weapons is that such bombing wipes out entire cities from the face of the Earth, leaving in their place a scorched desert. However, in reality everything is not quite like that.

For example, with an air explosion of a modern bomb with a megaton power, the zone of complete destruction will be in a radius of less than 4 km, average destruction will occur in the area of ​​7 km, and at a distance of 10 km only 5% of the population of a given territory risks dying.

The third, and most common myth about nuclear weapons is that an atomic bombing causes irreversible contamination of the area. However, the facts suggest otherwise.

In particular, it has been proven that 7 hours after the explosion of a nuclear weapon, the radiation intensity drops by 10 times, after 49 hours by 100 times, and after 343 hours by 1000 times.

In addition, a striking refutation of the above-mentioned myth is that Hiroshima and Nagasaki today are densely populated megacities.

And at Bikini Atoll, the Americans tested a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 15 megatons. At the same time, four years after the explosion, biologists who arrived at the site discovered that meter-high corals were blooming in the resulting crater, and the underwater ecosystem was completely restored.

Finally, the most “frightening” myth, that in the event of a nuclear war the Earth could literally split in half, was also invented during the Cold War. In fact, a ground explosion of an incredibly powerful 58-megaton munition would create a roughly 200-meter crater.