h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Still got writer's block.......


Godohgodohgod!!!

I wish it would go away!!!



GT

What sort of book are you trying to write GT?

Three on the backburner Av!!!

One on science, one on birdwatching, and a disaster novel....

And another on the history of the Earth......

All four blocked at the moment.......

Dont worry, the block will go away soon, (I hope)....
GT

my don't you wright about blocks

The disaster one sounds fun,so many possabilities to choose from

Oh yes!!

The disaster!!!

Triggered by an edition of 'The Sky at Night' a while ago.

The comlexity of it is how certain people deal with it....

How much destruction it causes, how many survivors etc.........

Difficult!!!


GT

Ah, the complexities of life You find there is always the one that comes from nowhere, nobody would usually notice them but yet in a time of crisis they have skills and knowledge that help others survive.

Such as some of the street folk in london,they live on the streets,no one knows or cares and yet quite a few are ex military

When the disaster happens, there are survivors on the undergound network...

But which lines are still 'live', I am still trying to find out. Obviously some lines in outer London will be OK, but inner London, I do not know.....

I have restricted major damage to within the confines of the M25 Ring Road!!!!!



GT

If you look at it hun you may find they have an isolated power supply underground in the event of emergencys when the main grid goes down. Possible left over and updated from second world war when they were used as air raid shelters.They learnt alot from the London bombings

I did look into thatt side of things....

The 'thing' that causes the disaster cased an explosion of an equivalent magnitude of a 15 megatonne explosion......

Where to go from from here?? Parliament had a full late-night sitting till 0400 that day.............


How many survived??????



GT

Not many hun, unless a few managed to get an early warning through satellite radar systems and make it to the tunnels underneath, plus there is a nuke shelter at high wycombe supposed to be for royalty and pm and so on. There is a currant blind spot in the skies above Australia as they turned the 24/7 monitoring of asteroids and meteors off

Mine slips by Spaceguard and hits London, five Km above Canary Wharf....




GT

About what time of day? and what time of year?

0730 Hrs

01/07/10


GT

Nice timing Wednesday morning,London, totally packed with commuters, masses wiped out in one fowl swoop, Are you thinking detonation similar to Nagasaki or Hiroshima?

According to info I have to hand The yield of a 1 megaton weapon exceeds the aggregate TNT yeild of all bombs dropped on Germany by the allies in WW2 so x that by 15 and it may spread beyond the M25

Detonation greater than Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined!


In my story, it does spred beyond the M25 in places



GT

Ouch, I have details of two assessments done in 1979 which examined theoretical attacks on detroit and leningrad.A one megaton surface burst with downtown detroit as ground zero would dig a crater 200 feet deep and 1000 feet across surrounded by several hundred more feet of highly radioactive soil.Virtually all structures would be destroyed out to 1.7 miles from ground zero and out to 2.7 miles multistory concrete buildings would probably be reduced to skeletal structures and houses would be demolished.

About half of the 250,000 population of this area would be killed, mostly from collapseing buildings and most of the remainder injured. Prompt radiation would not be a significant factor,since most people in its lethal area would be killed by blast effects.Many fires would start but a firestorm would be unlikely. Beyond 2.7 miles injuries would be high but deaths probably about 5 percent.Damage would be less complete but still extensive.People unprotected from local fallout might receive 300 rad doses in the first hour. Total casualties are estimated at 650.000 with 220,000 fatalities. A one megaton air burst with its more extensive area of effects would cause over 1,000,000 casualties among detroit's population of 4,3000,000. A one megaton air burst over eningrad would cause similar damage levels but about twice as many casualties because of the higher density in population .

One study postulated 10 one megaton warheads. the combined detonations would produce 5 psi of over pressure over more than 500 square miles, kill 1,5000,000 people from prompt blast effects destroy 80 percent of the areas industrial capacity and cause extensive fire damage.

Blast???

Equivalent 10 - 15 Mt airburst 5 - 7 Km High....



SNM!!


GT

Just remember those studies were done quite a few years back and weaponry has shrunk since then but the effects have grown.

You could always make it an RM20-20 hun, 50 mile radius effect zone all life forms within it dead but all buildings still standing