Ground Zero
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a nuclear bomb goes off in your city? With Google's Maps framework and a bit of Javascript, you can see the outcome.
And it does not look good.
Search Usage
Just enter the address of that boss, teacher, colleague or loved one.
If you can find it in Google Maps, you can nuke it.
- West 42 St, Manhattan, NY
- 48 Martin Place, Sydney
- Mount Everest
Want to see some Fallout?
We now have Ground Zero II - with more bombs and countries, it maps the radioactive fallout from an atomic explosion.
About Weapons and Countries
(29January2009)
The list of weapons contains bombs of historical significance - but what happens with modern, nuclear-assertive countries not in the list?
- France: has a similar to "B61", also deployed by jet fighter.
- India, Pakistan: equivalent to "Fat Man". Probably larger.
- Iran, Syria: deny having a bomb. Yet. Smaller than "Little Boy".
- Israel: denies having a bomb. Ever. As big as "Joe-4".
- South Africa: had "Little Boy", but renounced nuclear weapons.
About Google's Javascript Maps API
(30April2013)
Ground Zero 2.5 uses the latest Maps API from Google, and deprecates the use of LocalSearch.
You can click here to get the ZIP archive of the script.
You can also copy and paste the following to mashup the Ground Zero script into your own website or blog
<IFRAME SRC="http://www.carloslabs.com/projects/200712B/GroundZero.html" WIDTH=500 HEIGHT=600 ALIGN=MIDDLE FRAMEBORDER=0></IFRAME>
Science Caveat
I designed the script to show the usage of Javascript functions on top of a Google Map. The radius of a nuclear explosion seemed entertaining and facetious enough for this demonstration. The thermal effects of the blast are shown here because they are easily understood by users of all ages and cultural backgrounds.
It's hard to describe the lethal radiation dose, in Sieverts, to a school kid.
In a real-life scenario, the area of thermal damage is affected by a multitude of factors; including the terrain, mountains, and height of the explosion. This script does not assume these factors.
The formulas used here are in the public domain, and were sourced from the websites of the Federation of American Scientists and from Wikipedia
With thanks to: Jenn, tetris11, Marc van W, mendicantbug, Google
This script is free to use on any software project, free or otherwise, provided you credit Carlos Labs and you do not remove the header in the script.
Project: 200712B