Can THIS Nuclear Weapon Destroy New York City? Minute by Minute in 3D
Science Time
81,530 views
What would happen if the most powerful nuclear weapon ever designed exploded over New York City? From the creator who brought you The True Scale Of Modern Nuclear Weapons, this is the next step: one nuclear weapon, 100 megatons, a city of 8 million people. Could a single nuclear weapon really destroy New York City?
On September 30, 2026, Moscow told NATO it is ready to use its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons, if Kaliningrad is ever cut off. A day later Vladimir Putin repeated the warning, saying Russia would answer with "all weapons at the disposal of our country." Nuclear weapons are back in the headlines, so it's worth seeing what one can really do.
In 1961 the Soviet Union built a nuclear weapon so powerful that its own creators cut it in half before testing it. History calls it the Tsar Bomba. It was 8 meters long and weighed 27 tons. Tested at 50 megatons, it equals 3,333 Little Boys, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. At its full 100-megaton design it equals 6,667. Laid side by side, they would cover more than two American football fields.
We follow three New Yorkers at three different distances: Dana leaving a night shift at Bellevue Hospital, Marcus on the Staten Island Ferry by the Statue of Liberty, and Lena on a mountain 63 km north. We watch, second by second, what this nuclear weapon would do to them. A hypothetical Sarmat "Satan 2" missile launches from Siberia. American satellites spot it from 36,000 km away, and the president has about six minutes to decide. Then the warhead comes back into the atmosphere over upstate New York and detonates 14.5 km above the East River at 8:15 a.m., the exact minute Little Boy exploded over Hiroshima.
The fireball is more than 13 km wide, and Mount Everest would fit inside it. The blast wave crosses all five boroughs, northern New Jersey and much of Long Island. Heat severe enough to cause third-degree burns reaches 74 km, out to Stamford and Princeton. NUKEMAP's model estimates around 8 million deaths. We also explain why nobody builds nuclear weapons like this anymore, and what to do in the first few seconds if you ever see the flash.
This is a hypothetical scenario based on declassified data and published weapons-effects models. No missile today can carry a 100-megaton nuclear weapon. The real danger is the thousands of ordinary warheads still kept ready.
Watch next:
The True Scale Of Modern Nuclear Weapons: The True Scale Of Modern Nuclear Weapons
The True Speed Of Modern Nuclear Weapons: The True Speed Of Modern Nuclear Weapons
What If A Nuclear Weapon Hits New York Tomorrow?: What If A Nuclear Weapon Hits New York Tom...
80 Years Since The Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima & Nagasaki: 80 Years Since The Atomic Bombing Of Hiros...
Sources:
NUKEMAP by Alex Wellerstein: https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
Restricted Data, "The possibility of bigger bangs": https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2021/...
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "An unearthly spectacle: the untold story of the world's biggest nuclear bomb": https://thebulletin.org/2021/10/the-u...
The Nuclear Weapon Archive, The Tsar Bomba: https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russ...
U.S. National Archives: https://catalog.archives.gov
Nobel Prize, Andrei Sakharov 1975: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/pea...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear...
The animations in this video were created using Unreal Engine.
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US
Subscribe to Science Time: https://www.youtube.com/sciencetime24...
#NuclearWeapon #NuclearWeapons #sciencetime
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Can THIS Nuclear Weapon Destroy New York City? Minute by Minute in 3D
Science Time
81,530 views
What would happen if the most powerful nuclear weapon ever designed exploded over New York City? From the creator who brought you The True Scale Of Modern Nuclear Weapons, this is the next step: one nuclear weapon, 100 megatons, a city of 8 million people. Could a single nuclear weapon really destroy New York City?
On September 30, 2026, Moscow told NATO it is ready to use its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons, if Kaliningrad is ever cut off. A day later Vladimir Putin repeated the warning, saying Russia would answer with "all weapons at the disposal of our country." Nuclear weapons are back in the headlines, so it's worth seeing what one can really do.
In 1961 the Soviet Union built a nuclear weapon so powerful that its own creators cut it in half before testing it. History calls it the Tsar Bomba. It was 8 meters long and weighed 27 tons. Tested at 50 megatons, it equals 3,333 Little Boys, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. At its full 100-megaton design it equals 6,667. Laid side by side, they would cover more than two American football fields.
We follow three New Yorkers at three different distances: Dana leaving a night shift at Bellevue Hospital, Marcus on the Staten Island Ferry by the Statue of Liberty, and Lena on a mountain 63 km north. We watch, second by second, what this nuclear weapon would do to them. A hypothetical Sarmat "Satan 2" missile launches from Siberia. American satellites spot it from 36,000 km away, and the president has about six minutes to decide. Then the warhead comes back into the atmosphere over upstate New York and detonates 14.5 km above the East River at 8:15 a.m., the exact minute Little Boy exploded over Hiroshima.
The fireball is more than 13 km wide, and Mount Everest would fit inside it. The blast wave crosses all five boroughs, northern New Jersey and much of Long Island. Heat severe enough to cause third-degree burns reaches 74 km, out to Stamford and Princeton. NUKEMAP's model estimates around 8 million deaths. We also explain why nobody builds nuclear weapons like this anymore, and what to do in the first few seconds if you ever see the flash.
This is a hypothetical scenario based on declassified data and published weapons-effects models. No missile today can carry a 100-megaton nuclear weapon. The real danger is the thousands of ordinary warheads still kept ready.
Watch next:
The True Scale Of Modern Nuclear Weapons: The True Scale Of Modern Nuclear Weapons
The True Speed Of Modern Nuclear Weapons: The True Speed Of Modern Nuclear Weapons
What If A Nuclear Weapon Hits New York Tomorrow?: What If A Nuclear Weapon Hits New York Tom...
80 Years Since The Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima & Nagasaki: 80 Years Since The Atomic Bombing Of Hiros...
Sources:
NUKEMAP by Alex Wellerstein: https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
Restricted Data, "The possibility of bigger bangs": https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2021/...
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "An unearthly spectacle: the untold story of the world's biggest nuclear bomb": https://thebulletin.org/2021/10/the-u...
The Nuclear Weapon Archive, The Tsar Bomba: https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russ...
U.S. National Archives: https://catalog.archives.gov
Nobel Prize, Andrei Sakharov 1975: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/pea...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear...
The animations in this video were created using Unreal Engine.
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US
Subscribe to Science Time: https://www.youtube.com/sciencetime24...
#NuclearWeapon #NuclearWeapons #sciencetime