This page shows a simulation of the 100000 kt nuclear bomb (100000 kt) detonated over Chicago, IL, 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 Chicago
Centred on the Loop, the 13 km zone of total destruction covers the entire city of Chicago's core from Evanston's edge to Hyde Park, plus Oak Park and Cicero — though half of each ring falls on Lake Michigan. The 32 km collapse ring reaches O'Hare, Evanston, Skokie, Oak Lawn, Hammond in Indiana and Des Plaines — about 5 million people. Burns to 75 km extend to Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, Gary, Waukegan and Elgin; the 100 km ring of broken windows reaches Kenosha, Michigan City and Rockford's approaches. The flat prairie offers no shelter at all. The 800-kiloton scenario shows a single real warhead.
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