This page shows a simulation of the 100000 kt nuclear bomb (100000 kt) detonated over New York, NY, 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 New York
Centred on Lower Manhattan, the 13 km zone of total destruction covers all of Manhattan, Jersey City, Hoboken, most of Brooklyn and Queens' western half, and Newark's eastern edge. The 32 km collapse ring takes in the whole of New York City, Newark, Yonkers, Elizabeth, Paterson, Hempstead and Stamford's approaches — on the order of 15 million people. Burns reach 75 km: Bridgeport, New Haven's outskirts, Trenton, Princeton, Poughkeepsie's approaches and most of Long Island. The 100 km ring of broken windows covers the entire New York metropolitan area, from Hartford's suburbs to Philadelphia's northern approaches. The 800-kiloton version shows what a single real warhead would do.
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