Figure 1

Peak blast overpressure and total thermal energy as a function of range from detonation for 12 and 500 Kt weapons. (A) Range dependence of peak overpressure and thermal energy from a 12 kiloton detonation at a height of burst of about 2,000 feet. (B) Similar curves for a 500 kiloton detonation at a height of burst of about 8,000 feet. A comparison of the graphs shows that thermal energy scales much faster than peak overpressure. Reprinted with permission from Figure 8 The Medical Implications of Nuclear War 1986 by the National Academy of Sciences, courtesy of the National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.