Nuclear blast map shows impact of new gravity bomb on biggest US cities (2024)

Modeling of what a new nuclear warhead being developed by the United States military would do to cities in America shows that were the warheads turned on their own people, they would be capable of killing millions of people with a single detonation.

The Department of Defense (DOD) announced last week that it was developing a new variant of the B61 gravity bomb, which was among a series of weapons first produced in the 1960s during the Cold War nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The B61-13 is intended to "strengthen deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies" by providing the Biden administration "with additional options against certain harder and large-area military targets," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Officials said that the bomb variant is intended to be capable of an explosive yield similar to an older model, the B61-7, which the U.S. still has in its arsenal and of which 600 are estimated to have been produced. That warhead has a yield equivalent to 340 kilotons of TNT—around 23 times the destructive power of the one dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.

Maps produced by Alex Wellerstein, a professor and historian of nuclear technology, show that if detonated over downtown Manhattan in New York City, it would effectively vaporize SoHo and the surrounding neighborhoods, with a main blast radius that would level most buildings up to the southern end of Central Park and the riverside areas of Brooklyn and Hoboken, New Jersey.

Most of those living in the center of the city would suffer third-degree burns. A lighter blast radius—which still has the potential to cause damage to buildings and widespread injuries—would extend over Harlem, most of Brooklyn, part of Queens, and Newark, New Jersey, in the west.

An estimated 1.1 million people would be killed, while a further 2.1 million would be injured.

A detonation over downtown Los Angeles, California, would have a far lower instantaneous death toll, owing to the relatively sprawling nature of the city. Nearly 370,000 would die and almost 950,000 would be injured.

Residents of the California coastal city would be subject to third-degree burns from Arlington Heights to eastern Los Angeles and from Hollywood in the north to Huntington Park in the south.

Damage would occur to buildings from the Inglewood neighborhood, near Los Angeles International Airport, to South Gate, Pasadena and Griffith Park, the site of the famed Hollywood sign.

Similarly, if discharged over central Chicago, Illinois, the blast would cover only a small portion of the spread-out city and its suburbs, with around half radiating out over Lake Michigan. Most of central Chicago would be decimated, while damage would be seen as far as the Oak Park, Edgewater, and Southside neighborhoods.

The estimated death toll from the explosion would be over 415,000, while a further 750,000 people would be injured.

A detonation over central Houston, Texas—America's fourth most populous city—would see widespread destruction across many of its central districts. Third-degree burns would be inflicted from Denver Harbor to Memorial City and from Houston Zoo in the south to the Northside.

Around 204,000 people would be killed, while a further 407,000 people would be injured.

While a nuclear strike on Washington, D.C., by one of America's enemies would be politically significant, the relatively restricted size of the U.S. capital means the human loss to its population of around 690,000 would be much smaller than a similar one over New York City. An estimated 360,000 people would die, and a further 613,000 in the region would be injured.

The White House, the U.S. Capitol building, the Supreme Court and the Lincoln Memorial would all be leveled, with an area of near-total destruction stretching across to Georgetown, Ronald Reagan Washington Airport, the RFK Stadium and Columbia Heights.

Most of the city would sustain third-degree burns, while a light blast radius would extend past the city limits and into the surrounding states.

The Biden administration has said that the new weapon will not add to the total number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile but will instead replace some of the warheads it is also producing with a newer model, the B61-12.

At 50 kilotons, the B61-12 has a far smaller yield than its larger-scale cousins and was designed for tactical or strategic strikes. The B61-7 and its successor are intended primarily as nuclear deterrents.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a group dedicated to reducing nuclear weapons, described the B61-13 as "a political nuclear bomb."

In a report published just after the announcement of the bomb, the group argued that the development was likely "a political maneuver to finally get rid of the B83-1" and that "the military doesn't need an additional, more powerful gravity bomb."