Electronic Armageddon: How An EMP Bomb Would Be A Deathblow To Life As We Know It (VIDEO)

Earlier this month, NASA warned that as the Sun wakes up from its "deep slumber," a massive solar storm could wreak havoc on our electronics, from satellites to the electrical grid, causing damages up to 20 times the cost of Hurricane Katrina.

But the Sun isn't the only threat to our electronic lifeline. National Geographic explorers the risk and consequences of the "electronic Armageddon" that could be caused by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bomb.

An EMP bomb, National Geographic explains, is "a bomb that's designed to go above the atmosphere and release huge amounts of energy," some of which in the form of gamma rays. Such a weapon would cripple electronics, but not kill people.

"In less than a billionth of a second, the electrical intensity on Earth's surface would become so hot that microchips would fry, power lines would overload and the electric grid would collapse," says National Geographic, describing . "Everything with microelectronics in it would stop: your car, your computer, the subway. There would be no electricity."

Learn more about what would happen if an EMP bomb were ever detonated in the video below, then find out more about solar flares.

WATCH:

Comments

[melissa84008]

11:36 PM on 07/14/2010

He says at the end...:It would change the world order"...yes it would bring in a NEW WORLD ORDER!!! BP is testing a new Super Weapon using EMP bomb at the Deep Horizon Drill Site...they are talking about using this to stop the oil..."BP’s secret Omega Plan kicked off in earnest on July 7th, 2010. According to sources on the base the British Geological Survey (BGS), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), BP and Halliburton have set up a test site at one of the drill rigs"http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july122010/gulf-nighmare-ta.php

[3Ravens]

11:00 AM on 06/20/2010

I heard about this bomb that is full of liquid bacteria, and foreign people would shoot the bomb into the air over America (God Bless!), and then detonate it on Christmas Day, and then the bacteria would shower down on Americans and then the bacteria would cause Americans to dehydrate and then the dehydrated Americans wouldn't be able to get to hospitals and anyway the American doctors would all be dehydrated anyway and then all the American children would die first even though the American military would try to save them and then the American preachers would baptize everyone just before they died, though they had to hogtie most of their baptizees because they would try to drink the water, and then everyone in American died and the foreigners took over the land.

[BackOfTheBus]

01:45 PM on 06/20/2010

Did you, by chance, hear this from Pat Robertson?

[singermuse]

10:07 AM on 06/20/2010

Anyone with a metal cabinet, some aluminum foil and saran wrap can take a few choice electronic devices: emergency radio with shortwave, a beloved ipod or cd player, a laptop, etc...can protect these items from EMP. Wrap your radio in several alternating layers of plastic wrap and foil and place in the metal cabinet, and Bob's yer uncle. Don't forget to stock up on plenty of batteries! A readily available portable solar panel with downstepper would be good to have too. On the other hand, it isn't that difficult to live without electricity; the Amish for the most part still do. Keeping a bicycle handy and taking common sense precautions like keeping a year's worth of food stocked like the Mormons do is not paranoia, it's just good sense in a world that only gives us the illusion of security and certainty.

[melissa84008]

12:13 AM on 07/15/2010

wow..great comment!!! The Amish WERE right!!!! I didn't think of that, thanx!

[ZeraLee]

04:10 AM on 06/20/2010

Were they going somewhere with this, or did they just want to scare people?

"Dark Angel" was a Jessica Alba vehicle that was set in a post-EMP-apocalypse society.

The Earth's magnetic field is due to reverse in the next few centuries. How about discussing what would happen if the world degaussed itself?

[undsoweiter]

11:11 PM on 06/19/2010

Yes, EMP is real. It happens every day all over the world. It's called lightning. EMP weapons were abandoned because they suffer the same limitations. Electonics in metal framed buildings are largely uneffected as are aircraft,Military infrastructure not at all. Building an EMP weapon is not easy and lofting same to an altitude sufficient to make it effective is impossible withour hiving away your identity and inviting retaliation from the aforementioned ineffected military.

I wouldm't stock up on canned goods just yet.

[OleLadySquawking]

06:41 PM on 06/19/2010

And that would be a bad thing? Mankind survived for thousands of years without electricity. And there are millions of people right now who do it. It would suck to be in an airplane when it happened though. And the fight for food would be a real killer.

[dudedudeduuude]

07:38 PM on 06/19/2010

Yes it would. If you think it's not a bad thing, then why don't you give up modern luxuries and go live off the land for a while and come back and tell us about it in 6 months. No doubt HP would be happy to publish such a blog post.

[belyeu]

05:56 PM on 06/19/2010

I'm not so concerned about the destruction of electrical components as I am about the detonation fuel and ordnance.

[Ruben40]

02:27 PM on 06/19/2010

It would be good for Mother Earth to kill humans we are screwing up the planet any way.

[WSUShocker]

03:34 PM on 06/19/2010

Exactly. Nothing like massive starvations and suffering. Thanks for the insight!

[portico6]

03:39 PM on 06/19/2010

Well... it would certainly get comments like yours - and mine for that matter - off the web!

[middleoftheroad53]

01:58 PM on 06/19/2010

Learn to grow tomatoes!

[Conway193]

10:21 PM on 06/18/2010

Acquaintances of mine have always scratched their heads in bemusement, wondering why I insist on using a beat-up 1969 Plymouth Fury as my daily driver. Now they know. Point contact ignition systems are completely immune to EMP.

[jt1980]

04:11 PM on 06/19/2010

The question is where will you get the gasoline to power your car. Regional stores of gasoline will be gone very quickly or firmly secured by the military under the martial law.

[belyeu]

05:57 PM on 06/19/2010

"Regional stores of gasoline will be gone very quickly or firmly secured by the military"

If they don't explode, fuel is sensitive to EMP and can detonate.

[ckshenton]

09:23 PM on 06/18/2010

What are you talking, one that encompasses the earth? Like the end of 'Escape from LA'? What would that require, a nuclear bomb that's uses Jesus for the fusion reaction instead of plutonium, while emitting (apparently) person-friendly Gamma radiation. Solely for the purpose of destroying our iPhones. Deathblow to life as we know it...

But life goes on:
www.travisfeldman.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/road_warrior.jpg

I'll give $172 to the first one of you that can pull this off.

[spandrelmatic]

02:19 PM on 06/19/2010

Plus coffee money? May involve some late nights...

[commonsense2999]

08:54 PM on 06/18/2010

Diesel car or truck with a mechanical injection system.
Motorcycle with point ignition (BMW R100 or a Royal Enfield if you want new).
Car or truck with points ignition and a generator (not alternator).
Pre-transistorized vacuum tube communications equipment.

Diesel powered brush equipped magnetic generator/dynamotor (google "DELCO Lights").

You might not have facebook, but it can be done.

[3Ravens]

10:53 AM on 06/20/2010

You'll brew your own fuel in the compost pile??

[BackOfTheBus]

01:54 PM on 06/20/2010

Just need to live near the Gulf Coast.

[dwilson424]

08:06 PM on 06/18/2010

Good thing I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on 650 acres of land. I have enough space for all my crops and I cant remember when the last time I went to the store for meat or fish. My wife and I have canned enough food to last two years. I don't have to worry about school my kids are home schooled and my oldest just got excepted to Michigan. If something like this ever happened the city's of America would fall apart and many would starve in the street.

But what do I know I am a Tea Party Member.

[Cynth]

11:05 PM on 06/18/2010

Hope you have a visiting instructor helping your kids with their grammar and spelling. They might need those skills off the farm -- especially if there is no EMP bomb hitting your area.

[spandrelmatic]

02:21 PM on 06/19/2010

I guess you'll show us!

[BadBadBob]

06:03 PM on 06/18/2010

Any Nation that has nuke's can cause tremendous damage with a EMP detonation. You just need to launch a nuke and have it detonate above the Earths atmosphere say 350-400 Kilometers. Google starfish prime and you can see what happened when the US did this in 1962. US Military says 3-4 "enhanced" weapons could take out all electronics in the US that are not hardened - power plants, refineries, communications, internet, everything not hardened or in a Faraday cage. The sun of course can do this as well - its all about gamma rays. Very bad news if this were to happen. Its always been a a first strike option (a symmetrical warfare)

[Krameremark]

07:01 PM on 06/18/2010

I would think one result of a HEMP (high-altitude electromagnetic pulse) would be damage to the satellites. How many commercial satellites are hardened for EMP? How many will have their orbits disturbed? How many geostationary satellites will survive?

EMP energy is small, but it is a very high intensity for the small time it exists. It should not take much expense to harden commercial units. What is done to make commercial units hard to ESD will in many cases also protect them from EMP damage.

[BadBadBob]

10:01 PM on 06/18/2010

Commercial satellites are not hardened, Military?? I would hope so but again cost is a factor and really the US is cheap when it comes down to contingency planning. And it wouldn't matter if you could not link to them. Most companies do not see the benefit in the cost of hardening. Orbits would not be disturbed if you are out of range. This would be line of sight, so anything near would be fried. To the above post there is no one bomb that takes out the world - line of sight again, but the cascade effect would be tremendous. Look at Katrina and other natural disasters... the impact would be wide spread, grocery stores run out of food, no trucking, pharmacies would have no drugs (its all shipped on demand) power plants do not have replacement parts ready to go, and there would be a lot of parts necessary. Banks - all electronic, so records would be gone, calling 911 isn't gonna happen, anything with a microprocessor is fried - If you have a pacemaker or anything similar well very sorry but you would die.
We we've seen time and again that Govt's cannot respond to small disasters, this would be epic. I'm not a doom and gloomer just a realist. TV does does a very bad job of educating people on this kind of stuff. Most of what you see on TV is BS concerning EMP.

[Header]

04:24 PM on 06/18/2010

I guess I should be worried, but (1) who has a bomb big enough to do this, (2) who has a plane or a rocket (that works) that could successfully get high enough up to do this without detection by the USAF (I still believe in US military superiority, especially in the air)?

You know who owns NGC? News Corp. So - things like this shouldn't be too surprising.

I particularly like how this shows an EMP over the middle of the country blows out everything in the US, but not Canada.

This isn't news - it is fear.