What If Every Nuclear Weapon Went Off at Once?
The Last Day
42,028 views
What if every nuclear weapon on Earth went off at once?
Right now there are around 12,000 nuclear warheads on this planet, sitting
in silos, submarines and storage bunkers across nine countries. This video
asks what would actually happen if all of them detonated in the same
minute, and the answer is stranger than the one most people expect.
It begins with an ordinary morning. A train pulling out of a station in
Chicago. A market opening in Lagos. Children walking to school in Tokyo.
Farmers in the fields of Punjab. None of them know anything is wrong.
Then one launches. Then another answers. Then every arsenal on Earth empties
itself in under thirty minutes.
In this documentary we follow exactly what the physics does next: the
fireballs hotter than the surface of the Sun, the overpressure waves that
flatten steel-framed buildings, the thermal pulse that ignites cities from
the horizon, and the firestorms that follow. Then we get to the part almost
nobody gets right.
Earth would not be destroyed. The crust would not crack. The planet would
not be blown out of its orbit. All 12,000 warheads together carry a tiny
fraction of the energy of the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs. The planet
survives easily. What does not survive is the thin layer of climate and
agriculture that we happen to live inside.
Because the real killer is not the blast. It is the smoke. Enough soot
lifted into the stratosphere to block sunlight for years, dropping global
temperatures, collapsing harvests on every continent at once, and starving
far more people than the explosions ever could.
CHAPTERS
00:00 – An Ordinary Day & 12,000 Warheads
01:45 – The Chain Reaction
03:16 – The Blast, Heat, and Shockwave
05:11 – Why the Earth Survives (The Real Danger)
06:04 – Nuclear Winter & Global Famine
08:03 – The Aftermath & Eventual Recovery
09:23 – A Fragile Peace & ConclusionThis is a science based thought experiment built on real numbers: measured
warhead yields, published nuclear winter climate modelling, and known blast
and thermal effects. Nothing here is exaggerated, and in several places
reality is less dramatic than the movies, which is exactly why it is worth
understanding.
We make these videos not because we want this to happen, but because the
arsenals are real, the numbers are real, and almost nobody has ever been
shown what they actually mean.
If you enjoy science documentaries and what if scenarios about Earth,
subscribe to The Last Day. New documentary every week on the moments that
could end a world.
More what if documentaries on this channel:
What Would Happen If the Sun Disappeared for One Week
What Would Happen If the Moon Crashed Into Earth
What Would Happen If an Asteroid Hit the Ocean
#whatif #nuclear #documentary #science #earth #nuclearwinter
#whatifscenario #thelastday
20 Comments
What If Every Nuclear Weapon Went Off at Once?
The Last Day
42,028 views
What if every nuclear weapon on Earth went off at once?
Right now there are around 12,000 nuclear warheads on this planet, sitting
in silos, submarines and storage bunkers across nine countries. This video
asks what would actually happen if all of them detonated in the same
minute, and the answer is stranger than the one most people expect.
It begins with an ordinary morning. A train pulling out of a station in
Chicago. A market opening in Lagos. Children walking to school in Tokyo.
Farmers in the fields of Punjab. None of them know anything is wrong.
Then one launches. Then another answers. Then every arsenal on Earth empties
itself in under thirty minutes.
In this documentary we follow exactly what the physics does next: the
fireballs hotter than the surface of the Sun, the overpressure waves that
flatten steel-framed buildings, the thermal pulse that ignites cities from
the horizon, and the firestorms that follow. Then we get to the part almost
nobody gets right.
Earth would not be destroyed. The crust would not crack. The planet would
not be blown out of its orbit. All 12,000 warheads together carry a tiny
fraction of the energy of the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs. The planet
survives easily. What does not survive is the thin layer of climate and
agriculture that we happen to live inside.
Because the real killer is not the blast. It is the smoke. Enough soot
lifted into the stratosphere to block sunlight for years, dropping global
temperatures, collapsing harvests on every continent at once, and starving
far more people than the explosions ever could.
CHAPTERS
00:00 – An Ordinary Day & 12,000 Warheads
01:45 – The Chain Reaction
03:16 – The Blast, Heat, and Shockwave
05:11 – Why the Earth Survives (The Real Danger)
06:04 – Nuclear Winter & Global Famine
08:03 – The Aftermath & Eventual Recovery
09:23 – A Fragile Peace & ConclusionThis is a science based thought experiment built on real numbers: measured
warhead yields, published nuclear winter climate modelling, and known blast
and thermal effects. Nothing here is exaggerated, and in several places
reality is less dramatic than the movies, which is exactly why it is worth
understanding.
We make these videos not because we want this to happen, but because the
arsenals are real, the numbers are real, and almost nobody has ever been
shown what they actually mean.
If you enjoy science documentaries and what if scenarios about Earth,
subscribe to The Last Day. New documentary every week on the moments that
could end a world.
More what if documentaries on this channel:
What Would Happen If the Sun Disappeared for One Week
What Would Happen If the Moon Crashed Into Earth
What Would Happen If an Asteroid Hit the Ocean
#whatif #nuclear #documentary #science #earth #nuclearwinter
#whatifscenario #thelastday
Per George Carlin, “the Earth will be fine…we’re f**ked, but earth will get along fine without us