Consequences of Nuclear Explosions
Damage
The explosion of a nuclear bomb in an area with lots
of people will cause catastrophic amounts of damage. The amount of damage
relates to the distance from the center of the bomb explosion, also known
as the hypocenter or it is sometimes referred to as ground zero. The closer
something is to the hypocenter, the more worse the damage is. The damage
is made by a few things:
It is first made by a wave
of heat that extends outward from ground zero.
Next you would get hit
with a shock wave with amazing force that would blow your ear drums out,
or if you were close enough it would kill you.
The next thing to hit
you is radiation, which is caused by the bombardment of alpha particles
and gamma rays against your skin.
The final thing to hit
is Radioactive fallout, that is when radioactive fragments fall from the
sky after they have been blown up there from the blast.
At ground zero, anything that is in the local area
is vaporized instantaneously by the extremely high temperatures (usually
around 500 million degrees Fahrenheit or 300 million degrees Celsius).
As you start to stray from the hypo center, the majority of the deaths
are caused by burns from the unbearable amount of heat and from debris.
Some of the long-term problems are from radioactive fallout which spreads
from the immediate area because of the winds being able to carry the particles
long distances. These particles effect the water supply and get into
the foods that are consumed by the people miles away from the center of
the blast.
Medical Problems
People have tried studying the effects of the atom bomb
that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some of those effects
are:
