How many people would die if one American W87 nuclear warhead with a yield of 300 kilotons delivered by a Minuteman III ICBM were to explode in the air above the National People's Congress in Beijing?

And how many people would die if a crude atom bomb with a yield of 100 tons and planted by Islamic terrorists were to explode in New York City between W. Houston St. and E. Houston St.?

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There are answers to these terrifying questions and it's on a website meant to scare the daylights out of people that think the phrase "Nuke 'em!" is just empty words.

The website is called NUKEMAP and its creator is Alex Wellerstein, who describes himself as a historian of science specializing in the history of nuclear weapons and nuclear secrecy.

There are two NUKEMAP websites. One is a 2D version (click here). The other is a 3D version (click here).

The 2D and 3D maps both simulate a nuclear attack on a city and its consequences on the hapless victims. The difference between both is you get to see the mushroom shaped fireball of a nuclear explosion in the 3D version and choose how you want to view the explosion.

Whichever version you choose, you'll be able to "destroy" any city on Earth by selecting the city and the yield of the nuclear weapon you want to destroy it with.

Click the red "Detonate" button and wait for the horrifying results.

You'll be given the number of estimated deaths from the explosion and the number of injuries.

In Beijing, based on the information presented above, the detonation of a U.S. W87 nuclear warhead with a yield of 300 kilotons would kill 5.5 million people and injure 7 million others.

The radius of the nuclear fireball would consume anyone and anything within a radius of 1.8 kilometers. People 25 kilometers away would suffer 3rd degree burns.

In New York, based on the information above, a 100 ton terrorist nuclear device would kill 1,500 persons and injure 13,600 others.

NUKEMAP doesn't calculate the number of dead and injured because of radiation poisoning and radioactive fallout, so total casualties will be very much higher in the end.

NUKEMAP enables users to model the explosion of nuclear weapons (contemporary, historical or of any given arbitrary yield) on virtually any terrain and at virtually any altitude of their choice.

Over three million people since July 2013 have exploded over 30 million virtual nuclear warheads on NUKEMAP.