JerseyWiseguy t1_ja6betl wrote on February 27, 2023 at 3:59 AM

The atomic bombs dropped on Japan were powerful, but they didn't even completely destroy the cities. Even people fairly close to the center of the blasts managed to survive (though some died shortly thereafter). Thus, a nuclear blast 100 times as powerful is likely to virtually destroy a large city, like New York, but it certainly wouldn't destroy the entire state of New York, let alone the world.

The largest nuclear bomb ever used, the Russian Tsar Bomba, was about 3,800 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. Yet, the shockwave only managed to damage some buildings about 100 miles away--far from enough to destroy the entire world.

breckenridgeback t1_ja6ea4q wrote on February 27, 2023 at 4:25 AM

Or, more simply put: the world is very, very big.

Xyrus2000 t1_ja6fai8 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 4:34 AM

There was a fairly recent study on the impact of nuclear weapons on the ozone layer. It turns out it only takes a remarkably small number of nuclear detonations to do serious damage to the ozone layer.

So strictly from an explosive force impact nuclear weapons would not be able to destroy everything on the planet, but fire a few here and there across the world and you wouldn't need to. The UV radiation from the sun would effectively wind up sterilizing the surface of the planet.

Brover_Cleveland t1_ja6h9aj wrote on February 27, 2023 at 4:53 AM

The Tsar Bomba was also more of a pissing contest winner than anything. The Soviets wanted to have a bigger bomb than the US so they built something completely impractical. It was way too heavy and they had to drop its power so the pilot actually had a chance of escaping the blast after he dropped it.