• Question: What is nuclear winter?

    Asked by khughes08 to Hermine, Katy, Laura, Nathalie, Paula on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      A really terrible winter…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter 😉

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      It is what is predicted to happen after a nuclear war.

      The explosion of nuclear weapons would release huge amounts of smoke and soot into the Earth’s stratosphere. This would cause reduced sunlight to filter through and severe cold temperatures.

    • Photo: Katy Mee

      Katy Mee answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      I dont really know much about nuclear weapons but I think a nuclear winter referes to what would happen if lots of nuclear weapons were detonated and the particles sent into the atmosphere from the resulting explosions would prevent sunlight from reaching the surface of the Earth and hence the climate becoming more like winter.

      Volcanic eruptions can cause similar effects because the fine ash that is erupted can stay in the atmosphere for months or even years. Although the particles are so fine they can cause sunlight to be reflected back out to space and thus causing a cooling effect at the surface of the Earth.

      A famous example of this is Mount tambora in Indonesia which had a huge eruption in 1815 spewing ~160km3 of volcanic material into the atmosphere. It killed sveeral thousand people at the time but over the following years caused thousands of deaths due to famine because of the impact it had on the climate. 1816 was known as ‘The year without summer’. I imagine a Nuclear Winter (if it ever happens) would be similar to this.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tambora

    • Photo: Laura Dixon

      Laura Dixon answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      It’s the predicted climate after a nuclear war – cold with lots of gunk in the atmosphere, decreasing sunlight.

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Nuclear winter is what has been predicted by scientists that will happen after an all out nuclear war. If everyone fired all or a large sum of nuclear weapons the effect would change the climate ushering in an period of cold and darkness. This is because of dust reaching the atmosphere and blocking out the sun, ash and dust would also cover the earth like a grey blanket of smoke. It would be worste in bigger cities. Hell of a way to stop global warming wouldn’t you agree?

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