What is ‘black rain’ that pours down after a nuclear attack? Every single drop is a killer due to…

India-Pakistan nuclear war: The United States on Saturday mediated a “full and immediate” ceasefire between India and Pakistan, ending weeks of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals that could have easily escalated into an India-Pakistan nuclear war, especially since Pakistan’s top military and civilian leadership was openly hinting at using the nuclear option.

But experts have warned that nuclear war is not something that should be romanticized because even a low-scale nuclear attack is guaranteed to have devastating effects for the region its carried out on, as well as the rest of the world. In the immediate aftermath of a nuclear blast, black rain or radioactive rain starts pouring down from the skies, and every single drop of this unnatural precipitation is highly poisonous and a potential killer.

What is ‘Black Rain’?

Black rain, is essentially polluted rain which contains dark particulates, such as those from wildfires, volcanic eruptions and explosions. In the case of a nuclear blast, this rain contains particles, apart from dust, ash, and soot, thrown up into the stratosphere due to the massive blast caused by the nuclear detonation.

Depending on the intensity and yield of the nuclear blast, this radioactive rain can causes severe radioactive burns and even kill humans if exposed for long. The debilitating effects of nuclear rain are well-documents among the population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, where atomic bombs were dropped by the United States towards the end of the second World War.

According to various estimates, around 80,000 people were killed instantly in the initial nuclear blast, while hundreds of thousands have died since due to the nuclear fallout, including the ill-effects of black rain.

How ‘black rain’ is formed?

According to experts, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima created massive fires, sending huge amounts of of ash into the atmosphere, which ‘seeded’ the clouds, resulting in black rain, which poured continuously for nearly 2 hours after nuclear blast. The black rain, which felt like molten tar, was a combination of ash, radioactive fallout, and water.

The black rain caused severe radiation burns to those who were exposed to it, while long-term effects included death and DNA degradation, all typical symptoms of nuclear exposure, as per doctors.

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