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How long after a nuclear blast do the other effects take to arrive?

Direct radiation of light, IR that starts to smoke buildings fronts and vaporize people, and hard radiation to poison people gradually all travel at the speed of light. The blast wave than it films blows the roofs off and houses apart moves at the speed of sound in air.

But how fast does the ground shock/rumble like an earthquake travel?

And if a power plant or the high tension wires near them are destroyed at the instant of the flash, is there any time before the electricity, say ten miles away fails. Stated another way, would the lights go out in a protected site go out before the ground rumble reached - relative speed.

Any other "slow" effects that are faster than fallout and radiation sickness?

Like 9:40 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA8z94MXo9M

1 Answer

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  • ?
    Lv 6
    5 years ago

    The speed of sound is through air at sea level. The waves move much faster through the ground. The electric power will likely fail at the speed of light or negligible amount slower.

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