Timeline for Is there a scientifically plausible way to wipe out power & communications in an urban-fantasy Earth?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Jun 16, 2020 at 11:03 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Jun 24, 2016 at 16:12 | comment | added | CircleSquared | A CME strong enough to do this actually hit Earth during the Carrington Event of 1859. It lit night skies up enough to see unaided and electrified the telegraph grid (enough to fry many machines and electrocute some telegraph operators). If a similar event happened now, our power grid would suffer widespread collapse and many (if not most) unshielded satellites would fail. (Most satellites are unshielded.) It probably would take over a decade to repair the damage. | |
| Sep 20, 2015 at 5:03 | vote | accept | thatgirldm | ||
| May 27, 2015 at 17:26 | comment | added | Joshua Hanley | Nice answer, but all non-classic cars/trucks would be disabled by an EMP, and hospitals by extension. All (American, at least) cars made since the mid-70's have used electronic ignitions, so none hit by EMP would start without repairs/retrofitting. Some could probably be hotwired, but fuel injection is generally controlled by onboard CPUs, so they'd run very inefficiently if at all. Hospitals would lose power after 72 hours to a week without trucks to deliver fresh diesel for the generators. | |
| May 27, 2015 at 8:33 | comment | added | pjc50 | A single nuclear detonation in orbit almost certainly won't give you enough debris - space is big and satellites are widely distributed. Grid control is surprisingly manual but completely dependent on telecoms. Without comms you can't really organise grid repairs, so that's likely to go down and stay down. | |
| May 27, 2015 at 0:09 | comment | added | PipperChip | @pavja2 I don't know how it would go down. I imagine the US power grid does not rely on satellites for essential services, but I'm afraid I do not know about this subject to give a good answer. I do know a nuclear blast produces an EMP, but that the effects of the EMP generally pales in comparison to the actual blast and radiation. Maybe someone else can give you a better answer? | |
| May 26, 2015 at 23:38 | comment | added | pavja2 | Out of curiosity - how would a nuclear detonation in orbit, rather than on/near earth, go down? Would we be able to control the grid sans satellites (after all the debris acted like ASATS + EMP from the detonation)? | |
| May 26, 2015 at 20:21 | history | answered | PipperChip | CC BY-SA 3.0 |