Which Country Would You Nuke?

[screenshot]http://geology.com/nasa/world-topographic-map/topographic-world-map-lg.jpg[/screenshot]
The lowest areas are marked in blue. Imagine if all those lower areas were swallowed by the ocean?

Benfica said:

Starting here:

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WHOA YOU WANNA START ANOTHER TERRY WRIST WARS? BEST STAY AWAY FROM PUBLIC PLACES AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN RUSH HOURS FROM NOW ON!

RACIST!


lolol

Rambowjo said:

The Moon.

I'd nuke the Moon.

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On the far side of the moon so that it would eventually plummet to the earth!

Vaskadar said:

The primary reason I'd nuke the Ross Ice shelf is because it would speed up the process of flooding the planet, sweeping the lowlands of continents and filling them with recently re-introduced glacial meltwater. Effectively controlling the population of the planet. Since marine mammals and a few scientists (whom I can assure you don't stay there year round) inhabit the vast expanse of the ross ice shelf, which is essentially the size of France. By targeting near the break point, you'd have some serious melting action going on down there.

Also, it wouldn't be an attack on just one nation, but an attack on all the lowlands of the planet. The purpose is simply to control the world's population.

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I'm sorry, but the Ross Ice Shelf is mainly floating ice, which will not affect the sea level if melted.

It would influence the average salinity/density of sea water though and influence the circular stream in the Atlantic. It's said that temperatures would drop if this happened.

Zxanphorian said:

I'm sorry, but the Ross Ice Shelf is mainly floating ice, which will not affect the sea level if melted.

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close, but wrong, unless the Ross Ice is the same density as the sea water around it.
http://www.physorg.com/news5619.html

If there's a country called Duke anywhere, I'd definatily nuke it.

SkaarjMaster said:

close, but wrong, unless the Ross Ice is the same density as the sea water around it.
http://www.physorg.com/news5619.html

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I know of the density-volume issues. I should have added "appreciably affect" to the sentence. Four centimeters of sea level rise is quite negligible compared to the catastrophic estimates that others propose.

Edit: Also, this doesn't even take into account that blowing up the ice shelf would actually vaporize a good amount of ice, so the sea level could actually fall when it happens!

Zxanphorian said:

I'm sorry, but the Ross Ice Shelf is mainly floating ice, which will not affect the sea level if melted.

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However, it holds back a majority of the land-based Antarctic glaciers. Get it right. If the Ross Ice Shelf breaks away, the glacial flow (being held back by the Ross Ice Shelf) accelerates, right into the ocean. Also, I didn't state how powerful the nuke was. Make an assumption that it does not completely obliterate an ice block the size of France. In its current state, it is less dense, but only marginally. The difference is about .08 grams per cubic centimeter, when compared to water at the same temperature.

Let's say that the predictions of how much it affects the average sea level are wrong and are miniscule, then there would be no point to worry over such a thing.

You know what happened in a particular spot in Alaska when a large amount of rock and earth suddenly slipped into the water? HUGE waves. If the amount of 'locked' ice is any indication as to what could potentially happen... yeah. Maybe I'm over-exaggerating. I'm tired.

[screenshot]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Glacier-ice_shelf_interactions.svg/2000px-Glacier-ice_shelf_interactions.svg.png[/screenshot]

And if it does end up cooling the ocean water... then it would increase density, according to what your saying. Colder fluids are denser than warmer fluids, basic fact, but... if it melts, it expands. Breaking away such a large amount of ice, only to have it melt would decrease overall seawater density. Say it travels up past the antarctic circle, it would melt, thereby expanding and occupying more volume than it would if it were frozen. Not to mention somewhat desalinating the water in the immediate proximity, reducing immediate salinity levels. If it weren't for the trapped oxygen from the process of freezing, a pure block of ice would technically be denser than the water surrounding it (and sink if no oxygen bubbles were present), if we were speaking in terms of water that has zero salinity.

So break off the ross ice shelf, and a whole lot of glacier follows it into the ocean. KillerSkaarj has it right.

Here's a comparative image set. The ice cube is in denser saltwater.
[screenshot]http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2005/float_1.jpg[/screenshot][screenshot]http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2005/float_2.jpg[/screenshot]
Image on the left Buoyant Ice Cube in Saltwater. Image on the right Ice Cube Melted in Saltwater

You can perform the same experiment at home, with an ice cube. Measure it and reproduce the effects. It's really simple physical science.

So, when are we going to start dismantling the nukes that our sick ancestors left us to deal with?

Um, hopefully soon........it is pretty ridiculous to keep some of this stuff around.

Also....

Vaskadar said:

The lowest areas are marked in blue. Imagine if all those lower areas were swallowed by the ocean?

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....I'd have to stay with one of you guys for a while if that happened.
EDIT: although at 50 feet above MSL I'm on the beach, but at 55 feet above MSL then I'm flooded.

Benfica said:

So, when are we going to start dismantling the nukes that our sick ancestors left us to deal with?

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Obviously when it's too late.

Skynet will "dismantle" them by nuking the whales.

Benfica said:

So, when are we going to start dismantling the nukes that our sick ancestors left us to deal with?

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When we have enough marshmallows.

travel back in time and nuke ronald reagan

Anyone who does not bow in fear and pays no respect for I am North Korea!