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This pulverized rock can also produce "volcanic winter" effects, if sulfate-bearing rock is hit in the impact and lofted high into the air, [225] and "nuclear winter" effects, with the heat of the heavier rock ejecta igniting regional and possibly even global forest firestorms. [226] [227]
An impact winter is a hypothesized period of prolonged cold weather due to the impact of a large asteroid or comet on the Earth's surface. If an asteroid were to strike land or a shallow body of water, it would eject an enormous amount of dust, ash, and other material into the atmosphere , blocking the radiation from the Sun .
Nuclear famine is a hypothesized famine considered a potential threat following global or regional nuclear exchange.It is thought that even subtle cooling effects resulting from a regional nuclear exchange could have a substantial impact on agriculture production, triggering a food crisis amongst the world's survivors.
"Nuclear Winter in the Post-Cold War Era", Carl Sagan and Richard P. Turco, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Nov., 1993), pp. 369–373 "Recent Assessments of the Environmental Consequences of Nuclear War", The Medical implications of nuclear war, Volume 1985, Editors Fredric Solomon, Robert Q. Marston, National Academies, 1986
The 80% survival rate assumption has since come under significant criticism from academics and organizations like the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). FAS criticized CRP-2B for failing to consider the potential ecological impacts of nuclear war, including nuclear winter, disruptions to agriculture, and the radioactive contamination of water supplies.
A nuclear conflict involving less than 3% of the world's stockpiles could kill a third of the world's population within two years, researchers say.
A geological event such as massive flood basalt, volcanism, or the eruption of a supervolcano [178] could lead to a so-called volcanic winter, similar to a nuclear winter. Human extinction is a possibility. [179] One such event, the Toba eruption, [180] occurred in Indonesia about 71,500 years ago.
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