Have you wondered about what happens to the water and its creatures when an atom bomb or nuclear bomb or something equivalently dangerous is dropped inside the ocean to save a city/country in the movies or TV shows or in Reality?
For eg: In fiction, Batman: Dark Knight Rises, the Neutron bomb is hauled and safely exploded in the ocean to save Gotham. In reality, we have seen bombs being detonated in the ocean mostly for testing purposes with records of 1,528 bombs as per the Arms Control Association.
Birds and animals in Chernobyl Disaster have cataracts in their eyes and shrunken brains, similar to human survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic explosions. These are the direct repercussions of ionising radiation exposure in the air, water, and food.
So, doesn’t ocean creatures’ lives matter, or they are so deep in the waters that they aren’t impacted?
There might be people saying, this is just happening in the movies and so far no such instances have come to notice and since, the city or country is saved by the hero, who cares? Let me ask you a question, DC universe has Aquaman, who is the king of Atlantis, this concern must have been acknowledged. On the other hand, Marvel has Namor, who soon will be introduced in the Eternals.
In Aquaman, we have seen how Atlanteans have been in complete disarray with humans. How they blame humans for misuse and exploitation of oceans and their creatures for greed. For reference: Watch Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. Radioactive particles travel long distances from the blast site of an atomic bomb and pollute bodies of water, including aquatic life such as fish.
According to reports, a group of scientists has discovered radioactive carbon-14 in the meat of shrimplike crustaceans dwelling in the Mariana trench, at quantities high enough to imply it came from the detonation of nuclear bombs.
Remember, Water would provide better radiation protection, but not much in the way of explosive protection. Water, unlike air, is incompressible and may rapidly disseminate a blast wave. You’d be dead before you ever realised it since water is 700 times denser than air and transmits shockwaves 700 times more effectively.
How safe would it be to hide underwater during a nuclear attack?
Water is a powerful neutron blocker, therefore hiding beneath the water is very beneficial if you want to survive a neutron bomb (as it contains light elements such as hydrogen and oxygen, and so neutrons are stopped). However, water is a good conductor of shockwaves, and even if you’re in deep water, the shockwave will reach you, causing hollow organs to burst (bones, lungs etc.). In short, it relies entirely on the sort of bomb that is detonated.
The sooner we realise that everyone’s life matters, whether they are land or aquatic creatures, the better. We need to come up with innovative strategies to deal with atomic bombs in real life, not only in movies. We need a nuclear deterrence with no nuclear/atom bomb weapons being tested or in the possession of anyone or any government.
