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Novaya Zemlya nuclear blast radius
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Tsar Bomba was detonated over Novaya Zemlya on 30 October 1961 at about 50 Mt, airburst. This page loads that named preset on the test island.
Open Novaya Zemlya in the 3D simulator
Educational estimate only. Blast and heat rings use simplified yield scaling. They ignore terrain, weather, shielding, and weapon design. Casualty counts use WorldPop 2020 residents on an approximately 1 km grid and ignore time of day, commuting, shelter, and evacuation. This is not a targeting or civil-defense tool. About the model.
| Effect | Ground range | What the model means |
|---|---|---|
| Fireball | 6.8 km (4.2 mi) | Maximum luminous radius |
| 20 psi | 10.8 km (6.7 mi) | Heavy destruction |
| 5 psi | 23.8 km (14.8 mi) | Most buildings collapse |
| Thermal | 57.9 km (36.0 mi) | 3rd-degree burns |
| 1 psi | 55.5 km (34.5 mi) | Windows shatter |
Casualty estimate at this pin
| Estimated deaths | 67 |
|---|---|
| Estimated injuries | 89 |
| Residents inside 1 psi | 218 |
What the rings cover
The fireball and inner blast rings are tens of kilometres across on the island and the adjacent sea. 1 psi is a regional Arctic disk. Almost no 2020 residents sit inside those cells.
The device was tested at half its theoretically larger yield. This simulator uses 50 Mt and a 4 km custom burst height, matching the named weapon card.
Windows broke hundreds of kilometres away in the real test. This model’s 1 psi ring is still ‘only’ a large regional disk; it does not paint all of Europe. The Arctic pin is why the WorldPop line stays low.
Open Tsar Bomba over Paris or London from the weapon page if you want the same yield on a city you recognise. That is a scale exercise, not a historical event.
Related pages
Tsar Bomba · Semipalatinsk · Bikini Atoll · B41
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