Not only extreme Solar Flares /CME / “geomagnetic storming” can cause power outage, damage radio and satellite telecommunications or other technological systems, but also an EMP burst.
An electromagnetic pulse (sometimes abbreviated EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. The resulting rapidly changing electric fields and magnetic fields may couple with electrical/electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges.
In military terminology, a nuclear bomb detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth’s surface is known as a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) device. Effects of a HEMP device depend on a very large number of factors, including the altitude of the detonation, energy yield, gamma ray output, interactions with the Earth’s magnetic field, and electromagnetic shielding of targets.
An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) over the United States could end modern life in America overnight. Whether caused by an enemy attack (a nuclear device detonated above the atmosphere) or by a natural phenomenon (a geomagnetic storm), an EMP can cause entire regions of the country to lose electricity—permanently.
A wave of EMP creates three chaotic effects. First, the electromagnetic shock can disrupt electrical devices. The second effect is similar to lightning—a power surge that would burn circuits and immobilize electronic components and systems. The third is a pulse effect that flows through electricity transmission lines, damaging distribution centers and fusing power lines. Any of these can cause irreversible damage to an electronic system.
The result of a massive EMP event could be devastating. Communications would collapse, transportation would halt, and electrical power would simply be nonexistent. Not even a global humanitarian effort would be enough to keep hundreds of millions of Americans from death by starvation, exposure, or lack of medicine. Nor would the catastrophe stop at U.S. borders. Most of Canada would be devastated, too, as its infrastructure is integrated with the U.S. power grid. Without the American economic engine, the world economy would quickly collapse Earth would most likely recede into the “new” Dark Ages.
Most Americans do not know this. A nation that does not know how to live without technology would be almost entirely stripped of it at that point. Yes, this could really happen.
An EMP attack is America’s “Achilles heel”
The U.S. is completely unprepared and everyone around the world knows it. It is only a matter of time before someone uses an EMP weapon against the U.S.
Ex-speaker latest official to raise alarm on threat of nuclear EMP attack by Tehran (report and video from 2009)
WASHINGTON (2009) The threat posed to the national security of the United States by Iran was likened only to the one posed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s, by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested Tehran could be planning for a pre-emptive nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack on America that would turn a third or more of the country “back to a 19th century level of development.”
Gingrich made the stunning statements, which echo warning of other congressional leaders and national security experts, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week.
He said the “extraordinary challenge that the current regime in Iran poses to the safety of the United States” requires “extraordinary measures to meet it.”
“Not since the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s to confront the aggression of the dictatorships in Japan, Italy and Germany have we seen the willful avoidance of reality which is now underway with regard to Iran,” said Gingrich. “There are lessons to be learned from the 1930s and those lessons apply directly to the current government of Iran.”
Gingrich pointed with alarm at a report first published in G2 Bulletin that Iran had tested the firing of ballistic missiles from a merchant ship in which warheads were detonated in midair over the Caspian Sea rather than at a land or sea target. National security experts and scientists commissioned by Congress to study the threat of electromagnetic pulse attacks on the U.S. concluded that Iran was preparing for just such a scenario. So does Gingrich.
Yesterday, September 27, 2011: Disturbing reports in various media
Official: Iran to send ships near U.S. coast
Iran plans to send military ships near the Atlantic coast of the United States, but offered no timeline or details on the “powerful presence” its naval head promised would be deployed. Read more at politico.com
TEHRAN – Iran raised the prospect on Tuesday of sending military ships close to the United States’ Atlantic coast, in what would be a major escalation of tensions between the long-standing adversaries. “Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to American marine borders,” the head of the Navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said, according to the official IRNA news agency. Read more at news.yahoo.com (Reuters)
Abstract: Launched from a barge off the U.S. coast, an EMP attack consisting of one nuclear warhead attached to a single missile might shut down much of the country and kill all except 30 million Americans.
So are you ready?
Additional information:
Life after an EMP Attack: No Power, No Food, No Transportation, No Banking and No Internet
EMP attack: Only 30 Million Americans Survive
Before the Lights go out: A survey of EMP preparedness reveals significant shortfalls
Is the United States prepared for a ‘Black Swan’ Disaster Event?
Coercion Code - "Dark Times are upon us" 