Most of the people inhabiting our planet are horrified by the consequences of a nuclear war, because everyone knows that this will entail destructive changes both for human life itself and for the entire flora and fauna of the Earth. We have already talked about how many nuclear weapons will be required in order for the consequences of its activation to bear minimal damage, but even in this case, the explosion will provoke mass death not only of people and animals, but also of all vegetation at the epicenter of the disaster. In addition, the consequences of immeasurable human aggression will cause the emergence of a nuclear winter, which will close the world from sunlight for a long time. But what will happen to life in the oceans?
The aftermath of a nuclear war
The enormous destructive power of nuclear weapons was first demonstrated to the world in the last year of World War II, when in August 1945 American bombers dropped two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 people in total. Most of the dead were recorded after a long stay in the area of radiation pollution, since the evacuation of the population was not carried out due to insufficient information about the existence of this type of environmental pollution. The bombing of Japanese cities so far is the first and hopefully the last experience of using nuclear weapons in action.
A nuclear war will significantly affect the Earth's climate, causing a long-term global cooling effect - the so-called “nuclear winter”. The world will plunge into prolonged twilight, as smoke from extensive fires will block the sun's access to the surface. According to an article published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists used a modern climate model to conduct the study, in which a series of nuclear explosions and their consequences occurred, which can occur between relatively small regional conflicts and wars between the largest states of the world.
Due to global fires, huge amounts of soot particles will rise to the atmosphere.
As a result of prolonged explosions and fires, carbon dioxide enters the upper layers of the ocean, where it forms carbon dioxide, further causing the ocean to become more acidic. The disaster would also be followed by a sharp increase in the number of hydrogen ions in ocean waters, along with a significant decrease in the number of carbonate ions, on which corals, shells and bones of marine animals largely depend.
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Scientists have also found that the prolonged presence of soot in the atmosphere will lead to a global cooling, causing a temporary decrease in ocean acidity. Be that as it may, this phenomenon will not significantly help marine life, as levels of carbonate ions will continue to decline for 10 years after nuclear strikes.
The scientists who conducted this study also note that although large-scale nuclear wars will have the worst consequences for ocean life, a small nuclear war between India and Pakistan, for example, will have equally significant and lasting consequences for ocean systems, agriculture and the person himself.
Daria Eletskaya