Posted on 04/07/2015 9:26:37 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Exploding A Nuclear Bomb In The Sky Creates An Interesting Phenomenon
In 1962, during the depths of the Cold War, the U.S. military exploded a nuclear weapon high above an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Dubbed Operation Starfish, this exercise was part of a larger project to evaluate the impacts of nuclear explosions in space. The missile, launched from Johnson Island, 900 miles from Hawaii, was armed with a 1.4 megaton warhead, programmed to explode at 240 miles above the earth. It detonated as expected. What was not entirely expected was the magnitude of the resulting electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
The EMP was powerful enough to affect the electric grid in Hawaii, blowing out streetlights, and resulting in telephone outages and radio blackouts.
Dr. William Graham was active in the follow-up to the project, working out of the Air Force weapons lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After the blast, it was his job to understand the data collected, find out just what had happened in Hawaii, and what the defense implications were of this phenomenon. In a recent interview, Graham commented,
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Most people can’t function without their cell phones. And cell phones are high up on the food chain of vulnerability as far as what technology is needed for them to work.
The people hooked on texting would suffer terrible withdrawal.
Besides the obvious things to have on hand, books would be very important.
No Facebook, no Twitter, no Snapchat oh the horror!! There would massive depression followed by suicides on both coast!
Ya. But even doing simple math will be difficult for many. The schools put a lot of emphasis on calculators these days and few young people can do long division or even multiplication.
[ Why worry about EMP when computer hackers could bring down the nation’s power grid? ]
Just the power grid goign down would not be so bad as cars and trucks would still work and people could get the hell out of dodge in time to avoid the welfare zombies...
and EMP and we who live in the cities would be stuck having to deal with the hordes of roving savages...
A system of dependency on desalination plants instead of altering the landscape and infrastructure of California, with reservoirs and capturing rain and snow water, and conservation, and dams, etc, would be catastrophic in the case of EMP and the loss of power.
Not to worry. Now the GOP has control of Congress, and will mitigate this risk.
/s
Oh, no! Whatever will we do without our iPhones!!!
ISIS is now conducting ops in space? We are so doomed to the brutal destruction of civilization.
How many people do you know who could survive a year without electricity?
It would destroy more than just the transformers. It has the potential to fry Integrated Circuit chips, think everything from your digital wristwatch to the electronic fuel injection controls on the 18 wheeler truck that stock your local grocery store. The Starfish detonation messed with communications a 1000 miles away in 1962 that was literally VACUUM TUBE TECH.
This summation applies to more than just EMP.
I’m prepared for that scenario.
There is not enough money in the world to protect the U.S. from the effects of an EMP attack.
Imagine what would have happened to Hawaii in 1962 if microprocessors had been in as widespread use then as they are today.
Wow! You make it sound almost.. ...pleasant.
No ISIS isn’t conducting operations in space ,however the Iranians are doing so . They are also developing a doctrine on using ballistic missiles launched from ships & then detonating them at max altitude. Combined with the Iranian work on acquiring nukes this is not a good thing . Do we have absolute knowledge that the Iranians will conduct a EMP nuke strike ? No but we look at the capabilities,abilities,potentialities & passionate religious hatreds that leads knowledgeable folks to want to hedge their bets.
What a timely thread!!
You and thousands of others are.
Hundreds of millions aren’t.
Aren’t the power plants closed circuit?
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