If Nk gets seriously nuked where will the prevailing winds take the fallout?

[CavLancer]

Should I be stocking up food? I'm in the central Philippines. Anyway how does one determine where the air that you breathe comes from?

 

[West 36]

You can find all those answers and more at your local library!

 

[CavLancer]

I'm in the Philippines, what local library?

 

[West 36]

The one downtown!

 

[CavLancer]

Oh THAT one.

 

[PiMan]

You'll be fine. Based on what I can find, it would be in the direction of northern Japan, not south to the Philippines.

 

[CavLancer]

Thanks PiMan.

 

[CavLancer]

How did you go about finding out? I'm curious if there is some sort of map of global 'rivers of air' as Coloumbus called them in his movie.

 

[PiMan]

I looked on Wikipedia for global air movements, and found this. Honestly, it wasn't very helpful. But with the knowledge that winds and ocean currents frequently travel similar directions over oceans, I found this.

 

[CavLancer]

Well, that's simply brilliant PiMan, and very nice of you to go to the trouble. :b:

 

[Shadylookin]

I'm pretty sure the wind would carry it east toward japan

 

[Winner]

Should I be stocking up food? I'm in the central Philippines. Anyway how does one determine where the air that you breathe comes from?

Even if North Korea was heavily nuked, the danger coming from fallout outside the immediate neigborhood of NK is negligible.

I'd be afraid if I lived in Japan, South Korea, Manchuria or the Russian Far East, but if you live in Philippines, you'll be fine.

Generally speaking, most of the dangerous stuff deposits near the ground zero. What remains are fine particles carried by high-altitude winds, but they generally travel westwards and are spread over such a large area that they become harmless. I read something about the dangers of fallout from Chinese nuclear tests, but the conclusion was that it poses no great risk in North America.

 

[CavLancer]

Its spread out, so it requires a dose of many radioactive particles to harm a human? Anyone anywhere could breathe in a particle just by bad luck and no doubt many have. It could get lodged in a lung or throat, but it poses no risk because the dosage is insufficient?

 

[Winner]

Its spread out, so it requires a dose of many radioactive particles to harm a human? Anyone anywhere could breathe in a particle just by bad luck and no doubt many have. It could get lodged in a lung or throat, but it poses no risk because the dosage is insufficient?

Nuclear explosion generally produces two types of radioactive stuff:

1) The pieces of plutonium and the products of nuclear fission (many types of nuclides) coming from the bomb itself;

-> most of the "exotic" stuff decays pretty fast, and the rest is spread out so much that unless you get hit by fallout close from the ground zero soon after the explosion, you can't possibly get a lethal dose of radiation. This doesn't rule out some health risk (increased risk of getting cancer), but the danger is low if you live far from the nuked area.

2) The naturally non-radioactive materials become radioactive as a result of the nuclear explosion (the nuclei catch few neutrons and became unstable).

-> this type of radioactive materials decay (become harmless) even faster, and as with the products of fission from the bomb itself, they're mostly deposited downwind close from the ground zero.


Contrary to popular belief, radioactive fallout doesn't travel very far unless the explosion is REALLY big. Present-day warheads are not so powerful as they used to be, therefore the amount of radioactive fallout they produce is much lower.

---

This is an old map showing possible fallout patterns in the US - if major targets in the US were nuked by Russia. Note that it would include MANY, MANY more nuclear explosions than any possible nuclear exchange in Korea, so there would be much more fallout.

This is a chart I found on Wiki, under "nuclear fallout" - you should read it.

IIRC, if you get over 500 rads, you're in trouble (you probably die ).

 

[CavLancer]

Winner is this your area of expertise or just a side interest? Have you considered such stuff before for any purpose such as potentially surviving a war...or any other reason? You are very knowledgeable about a subject I'm curious about, that's why I ask.

 

[Winner]

Winner is this your area of expertise or just a side interest? Have you considered such stuff before for any purpose such as potentially surviving a war...or any other reason? You are very knowledgeable about a subject I'm curious about, that's why I ask.

It's a hobby of mine, kind of I suck up information about nuclear weapons, their effects and survival in a post-nuclear world.

There is a nice handbook about survival in nuclear war, Nuclear War Survival Skills

I heavily recommend to read the first few chapters.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Even if North Korea was heavily nuked, the danger coming from fallout outside the immediate neigborhood of NK is negligible.

1- the prevaling winds --- > Japan, US and Mexico
A large portion of it hopefully would come down as rain in the pacific

 

[CavLancer]

Thanks! I'll check your link. Someone told me that Bohol, Philippines is a good place to be at such a time so if it comes to it maybe we'll do ok here. Hydro power generation, pretty far from anything worth nuking, plus I have a hookah dive system which I can run off a 12v battery and a solar charger for that which I can use to set fish traps. Also a couple of rice fields...that covers protein and carbs...

I wonder how bad a nuclear winter would be in the tropics?

Thanks FF and to all who contributed.

 

[Winner]

1- the prevaling winds --- > Japan, US and Mexico
A large portion of it hopefully would come down as rain in the pacific

Most of it would deposit in the Sea of Japan and Japan itself - heavier dust particles tend to come down quickly. The lighter, soft stuff would be carried by high-alt. winds and some of it would even reach the US, but by the time it would happen the natural decay and dispersal would have rendered it harmless.

The important thing to consider is: what type of nukes and how many would be detonated over NK? Because I really don't think the US would want to commit a genocide against NK people by nuking every city. If NK used a nuke against, say, Japan, the US would retaliate against the most high-profile targets along the DMZ with small, tactical warheads (mostly to destroy DPRK's artillery and conventional forces). Another places targeted might be the rocket launch sites/nuclear facilities, but I believe these can be taken out by conventional means.

So, in this case of a VERY limited nuclear exchange, there would be VERY little fallout. It wouldn't even threaten Japan as much (but Japan would have other problems, obviously... ).

 

[CavLancer]

Yah, I wonder if we could hit their artillery fast enough to save Seoul. Huh, that sounds odd...save Seoul. Japan of course might be very screwed.