This page shows a simulation of the 100000 kt nuclear bomb (100000 kt) detonated over Los Angeles, CA, USA. The map displays the estimated fireball, the zones of heavy, moderate and light blast damage, thermal radiation and ionizing radiation. Click «What does that mean?» for a detailed legend, or run your own detonation on the main page.
100 megatons was the design yield of the Soviet AN602 — the Tsar Bomba — before its final stage was throttled back to 50 for the 1961 test. No weapon of this size was ever deployed: the bomb weighed 27 tonnes, no missile could lift it, and the arms race moved towards many smaller warheads instead. This scenario is therefore a physical ceiling, not a military one. The rings are enormous: a fireball about 12 km across, total destruction (20 psi) to roughly 13 km, collapse of houses (5 psi) to about 32 km, third-degree burns on exposed skin to about 75 km in clear weather, and broken windows (1 psi) out to about 100 km.
What that means in Los Angeles
Centred on downtown Los Angeles, the 13 km zone of total destruction covers Hollywood, Beverly Hills' edge, Pasadena's edge, Inglewood, Compton and Glendale. The 32 km collapse ring reaches Santa Monica, LAX, Long Beach, Burbank, Pomona's approaches and Anaheim's edge — around 9 million people. Burns to 75 km cover the entire Los Angeles basin, the San Fernando Valley, Orange County down to Irvine, Santa Clarita, Riverside's western edge and Ventura's approaches. The 100 km ring of broken windows extends to San Bernardino, Riverside, Oxnard, Lancaster and Palmdale. Even for a weapon this size, the San Gabriel Mountains would shadow the high desert beyond them. See the 800-kiloton scenario for scale.
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