Questions tagged [nuclear-winter]
This tag should be used for questions about the aftermath of using [nuclear-weapons] in your fictional universe.
32 questions
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Hazard symbols for exclusion zones
This is a very niche question, but I'm also only asking it because i don't find any answers to it anywhere else.
In my current setting, the world's population has drastically dwindled during World War ...
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What wild mammals could survive a nuclear winter? [closed]
I'm writing a story that takes place after a nuclear winter that lasts for at least 25 years, and which caused much of the surviving population to become hunter-gatherers as a result of crop failure ...
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How big would the AoE/destruction of a nuke 72 times smaller than normal be assuming it still works at that scale?
I had the idea of a nuke that is scaled down for roughly 1 inch tall cockroaches. Why would they make one at all? Because it sounds cool. Would it effect them since they are roaches? Probably not.
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What is the most important objective for survival in a post-apocalyptic society?
Let's say the world as we know it has been brought to an end by a nuclear apocalypse.
Our perspective centers on a small group of survivors in one area, benefiting from a shelter of some kind. These ...
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Would fish survive a Nuclear winter?
Following a Nuclear war in a project I’m working on, the only surviving land animals are a few mutant or genetically altered insects, (earthworms, scorpions, locusts, cockroaches) and sapient rats ...
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Nuclear Armageddon comes! Can Bob's plants survive?
Bob loves plants. More specifically, he loves terrariums.
Bob's magnum opus is a large terrarium made from a 5-gallon glass water jug. Inside is a miniature ecosystem: plants grow, detritivores feed ...
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How big could a nuclear war be without causing an apocalypse?
It is widely known that an all out nuclear weapon with modern nuclear missiles would probably cause a nuclear winter, billions of deaths, and end life as we know it.
On the other hand, two small (by ...
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Population recovery time after a fantasy nuclear winter
One of the major events of my setting is an all-out war between two factions of gods (and their human subjects) using basically the magical equivalent of nukes and nuclear technology. The world was ...
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How long would it have taken for England to become habitable again if the Cuban Missile Crisis had ended in thermonuclear war?
I'm exploring possible 'utopian' outcomes to this situation. We invariably think of the aftermath of nuclear holocaust as exclusively dystopian - could a 'better' world have emerged in the 60 years ...
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What animals would most likely fill large land animal niches after a mass extinction that wipes out 99% of life caused by nuclear war?
Before the Permian extinction synapsids occupied large land animal niches. After the permian extinction some synapsids occupied large land herbivore niches, but most large land animal niches were ...
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What would the global effects of a prolonged nuclear war at sea be?
There are a great many studies targeted at the effects on the environment of nuclear war on land, but I can't seem to find any relating specifically to nuclear war at sea.
The current basic setup in ...
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After a major nuclear war/disaster, how much radiation would remain after ~300 years?
The setting for my story is a post-post-apocalyptic Earth. There was a nuclear war (and several related nuclear disasters due to power plants being either targeted or neglected), and it's already been ...
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Founder’s effect causing the majority of people in a post-apocalyptic world to become colorblind?
So, in my world (or more rather the region in which my story takes place) when the nuclear war happened the majority of people survived in small, survivalist compounds, remote wilderness shelters, and ...
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Best crops to grow in the post-apocalyptic wasteland?
A nuclear-WWIII happens, lots of people and animals die.
Surviving humans are afterwards forced to either hide out in small survivalist compounds on the surface, or self-sufficient underground bunkers....
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Optimal way to survive nuclear winter? [closed]
In my world, a global thermonuclear Third World War happens, causing a nuclear winter that will last around 5 years, coupled with radioactive fallout permeating the world.
Here’s the thing: I want to ...
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Most important/useful animals and plants to save from the apocalypse?
So, nuclear war is on the horizon. I’m order for humanity and Earth to survive on, organizations, both public and private begin to construct massive underground shelters, each with the ability to ...
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Realistic mutated animals in a post-nuclear Earth?
In my world it is established that when the nuclear war started, many of the world's creatures died off. And those that didn't die-off from the radiation and cold, became different. Only humans (or ...
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Logical reason why survivors in a post-nuclear world would not migrate south?
I’m building a post apocalyptic world right. In my world, after the Nuclear War there is a brief nuclear winter.
Realistically, some have told me, the survivors would migrate south as the Southern ...
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How to survive outside a bunker during nuclear winter?
Nuclear War has just destroyed much. You’re a human living far out in a rural community in the US, or Russia or wherever. You’ve managed to avoid the direct destruction caused by the bombs going off. ...
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Are there semi plausible scenarios where Nuclear Winter could last a thousand years or trigger an ice age?
Trying to develop a fictional scenario with a 'believable' theory as to how a Nuclear War and resulting Nuclear Winter could turn into a millennial scale ice age. By 'believable', I mean that it ...
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How to eliminate mankind: concentrated nukes or scattered ones?
Assume the entire governments of US and Russia are possessed by aliens from beyond to use nuclear weapons to exterminate the human race.
For now ignore the fact that there are may be more effective ...
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How many years should survivors wait before exiting a nuclear bomb shelter?
I'm writing a tale about a post apocalyptic world. I'm studying the timeline about the world history, I've planned that, using "clean" thermonuclear bombs, radioactivity should be quite lower after ...
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Under what circumstances would a nuclear war render Earth's oceans uninhabitable?
It's a bit more complicated. I'm creating a sci-fi world for a tabletop game. One of my created races is a form of humanoid octupi. My idea is for there to be a nuclear war that forces their species ...
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What would human survivors eat in a post apocalyptic Nuclear winter?
Let's assume that:
the entire nuclear arsenal available on earth is launched and detonated, completely obliterating civilization but leaving a few humans and animals in very remote areas alive.
this ...
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Nuclear holocaust survival? [closed]
Okay, so I'm writing a story about a character in one of the rebuilt cities of the world about 2000 years after a mass nuclear war that took place around maybe 100 years from now, a war that destroyed ...
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How long would the southern hemisphere survive after a nuclear war that, while intense, was limited to the northern hemisphere?
I remember hearing/reading something somewhere a long time ago about how the weather patterns on earth mostly cycle away between the equator and the poles, and that this means if there was a northern ...
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How much time will it take the humanity to forget how to repair machinery after a nuclear apocalypse?
I am building a world where a nuclear apocalypse happened, forcing humanity to hide in bunkers or avoid the radioactive fallout. Because of this, humanity forgot how to build things: they could ...
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How long would it take for the effects of a nuclear weapon to wear off?
I would like to know how long it would take for the plant life in an area to recover from an explosion from a nuclear bomb exploding.
Parameters for questions:
The bomb is a 100 megaton nuclear ...
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In a post-nuclear apocalypse, what's the largest settlement that could survive for more than a year?
Assume enough bombs have been dropped for there to be a nuclear winter which would impede the growing of crops and cause famine. Modern infrastructure in most major nations has collapsed, and all the ...
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How long would it take for animals, plants, and insects to die off during nuclear winter?
Not a total extinction, mind you. Just how long do you think it would take for the residents of a small town of survivors to notice?
Obviously this varies from place to place and ecosystem to ...
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Archeological evidence of nuclear warfare
I'm working on a story set roughly 2 million years in the future involving future archeologists discovering evidence of a nuclear war and ensuing winter wiping out humanity. What sort of clues would ...
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How a nuclear war in north hemisphere would affect the south hemisphere?
I'm trying to figure out how a nuclear war in the north hemisphere would affect the south (specially South America, where my story is set).
I read about the nuclear fallout and nuclear winter ...