Electromagnetic Pulse... does this concern you?

[music4Him]

I heard about this for the first time last night at church during our Revelation studies.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/bg1784.cfm

"For example, a single nuclear weapon detonated at an altitude of 500 kilometers could produce an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) that would blanket the entire continental United States, potentially damaging or destroying military forces and civilian communications, power, transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure essential to modern society."

It will cause anything that runs off electricty to shut down! Telephones, fire-police radios, 911, cars and airplanes with electronics, refridgerators, gas pumps, water pumps, computers... and the list can go on and on.
It is a very interesting read. If this happened it would set us back to the old days when a refridgerators ran off a block of ice. Carosene lanterns and candels for light. Kinda has me thinking about the "what if" and "what we could do" senerios if this happened. Making due with natural resourses around us to survive. What would you do?
I figure for transportation I'd get a old timey car gassed up for emergencies :thumbs: and a horse and buggy just incase. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[Joseph_Botwinick]

It will cause anything that runs off electricty to shut down!...computers...

NOOOOOOOOOOO!
:laugh:

Joseph Botwinick

 

[donnA]

Theres a christian fiction book just like that, what people believed was an emp, and they lost all power and had to adjust their way of living and learn to do things differently. I think it was called Last Light, it was a good book.

 

[Phillip]

EMP is not exactly what its cracked up to be. There is a good chance that it will knock out certain electronics, especially computers that are turned on and other sensitive items which might be turned on. Phones may or may not be knocked out. Most have such good lightning protection on them they would be able to withstand an EMP. EMP is also only very temporary. It is caused by gamma rays from the bomb stripped off electrons from upper atmosphere molecules.

Two types of bursts will cause EMP. A high altitude burst (500KM would be a little high for a good EMP pulse although it would cover a larger area) A better scenerio would be to detonate about three bombs over the US at different locations at close to 150 KM. Also, a ground burst will also cause a tremendous EMP.

Strangely, a bomb set off between 10,000 feet and about 50 KM will cause very little EMP.


It will NOT effect the military very much. All military equipment is "hardened" against EMP pulse on purpose for this very reason.

By the way, we do have EMP generators that use regular high explosives to collapse a charged strip-line (I won't get into it any more than that), that will put out local EMP pulses along the same level of nukes. We DID use these in Iraq during the first days of the last war. Often they will even knock a car out because of the computers used in modern cars, but the car will usually start again once the EMP has passed.

Even though the EMP is very real and likely to knock out certain things, it is probably overrated; but, there will be some damage to electronics and power lines will pick up surges of energy much like a lightning strike, but then again the lightning protection that is already in place on the utilities will do a very good job at stopping most of this.

Surge suppressors will also probably keep a lot of computers form being damaged, but you may have to reboot (oh, horrors of horror), the terrible ctl-alt-del.:thumbs:

 

[Magnetic Poles]

I appreciate Phillip's expertise on this. I have heard about EMP since the cold war days. I have read that the planes primarily used as Air Force One are protected, but I don't know about commercial airliners.

 

[emeraldctyangel]

It doesnt concern me all that much. The important stuff we use around my area is shielded by HAEMP shields and we have back up equipment to spare us from losing important data and able communications. Life outside would be different for sure.

 

[Hope of Glory]

I hear that it will really mess up aol...

Never mind.