Nuclear artillery are , to engagement , mankind ’s most globe - shatter weapon . They have more than enough destructive power to wipe out the human race for full . But could we actually use them to destroy the Earth itself ?
LiveScience writer Michael Schirber does n’t believe so . He writes :
One style to see this is to compare the vigour of a nuclear bam to that of the rotational gesture of the Earth . The big nuclear bomb calorimeter have an explosive vigour of several tens of megaton , or about 10 ^ 17 J , whereas the Earth ’s rotational energy is around 10 ^ 29 Joules .
Yeah , that ’s a jolly big remainder . Spirber mark that the energy of the largest nuclear blast is less than that loose by the 2004 seism that have the tsunami .
The amount of break - moving ( “ Earth - slimming ” ) vigour in this magnitude 9.3 earthquake was estimated at more than 10&^22 Joules , or roughly 100,000 meter that of the self-aggrandizing nuclear bombs . So any burden of a atomic bang on Earth ’s rotation would be far below what is measureable .
So , it seems unlikely that one nuke — or several — of today ’s applied science could do harm to the satellite ( though the environmental effects are quite a unlike story ) .
The tsunami did , however , alter the Earth ’s rotation .
scientist estimate that the prodigious tsunami - do 2004 Sumatra seism stimulate a slimming of the Earth that shortened the day by a few millionth of a 2d and lurch the North Pole by an in .
Do we have enough nukes to accomplish a similar essence ?
The researchers at the Arms Control Foundation suggest it ’s possible . According to their calculation , between Russia and the United States , we have about 26,000 payload — there are only about a thousand between the rest of the countries that formally , unofficially and probably have nuke . If one assume — a big assumption , but lease ’s go for the Day of Judgement scenario — that each nuclear weapon stockpiled the humankind ’s nuclear leaders has an energy of 10 ^ 17 Joule , then between Russia and the United States , we have the possible capability to let go of 2.6 ^ 22 Joules — or approximate 25 % of the vigour of the 2004 tsunami - stimulate earthquake .
So by concentrate the capacitance of the world’snuclear arsenalin one stead , we might be able-bodied to shift the North Pole by one - fourth of an inch . Does n’t exactly seem worth it . But it ’s for science !
Can a Nuclear Blast Alter Earth ’s Rotation?[Live Science ]
atomic Weapons : Who Has What at a Glance[Arms Control Association ]
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