NUKEMAP
nuclear weapons effects simulator
NUKEMAP
nuclear weapons effects simulator
In the box below, please type in the explosive power of the weapon you would like to visualize. The number should correspond to the thousands of tons of TNT equivalents (kilotons). The minimum acceptable value is 0.01, and the maximum is 100,000.
In the box below, please type in the name of a city, an address, a zipcode, or any other identifying information. Google will be used to try and look it up.
This interactive map is a version of the NUKEMAP website modified especially for the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum's exhibition A View from the Deep: The Submarine Growler & the Cold War.
The NUKEMAP, and this modified version, was created by Alex Wellerstein, a professor of science and technology studies at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, and co-curator of the exhibition A View from the Deep.
The nuclear effects information is based on declassified U.S. government reports and equations from the Cold War, displayed using the Google Maps API.
Casualties are calculated using the LandScan population density database (created by Oak Ridge National Laboratories) and U.S. Department of Defense "rules of thumb" regarding the likely number of deaths and injuries that would result at different distances to the blast. Casualties do not take into account radioactive fallout.
This simplified version of the NUKEMAP assumes all weapons are surface bursts and does not give full flexibility in choosing weapons or effects to visualize. For more options, and information, use the full NUKEMAP application from any web browser by navigating to nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/.
The server expenses for the NUKEMAP are paid for by the College of Arts and Letters at the Stevens Institute of Technology and the non-governmental organization Global Zero.
