What is the difference between ground-burst and air- burst weapons?
A ground-burst nuclear device explodes when it hits the ground. This causes a more localised area of damaged, but has the advantage of sucking up vast amounts of soil, rock and debris. This becomes radioactive, and then can spread as fallout over a much wider areas. Air-burst weapons do not create as much fall-out. However the area of devastation they cause is more widespread. Also they create a much wider area of electrical black-out due to the EMP produced. Each type of detonation has it’s uses.
