Sweet candy-apple fuck, has anyone ever seen a cascade explosion like this?? Just a couple of hours ago...
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1290678160875454465
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1290678160875454465
MASSIVE Explosion in Beirut, Lebanon?!?
- Thread starter 137th Gebirg
- Start date
Here's a good thread about what's going on in the atmosphere
https://twitter.com/BadAstronomer/status/1290698779000279053
Yeah, about that red cloud, fingers crossed it's not toxic
https://twitter.com/BadAstronomer/status/1290698779000279053
Yeah, about that red cloud, fingers crossed it's not toxic
Sadly, I can't think of anything in the natural world that would produce a reddish-brown cloud like that. It is almost certainly toxic. Concerned about the body count that will emerge as a result. I can't fathom the size of that blast - it reminds me of the test footage of MOAB fuel-air bombs from about decade or two ago.
In some of the more close-up videos, you can definitely see multiple small flashes happening right before the main blast. It resembles ammunition and other ordnance cooking off from the heat before it hits the main magazine in storage.
In some of the more close-up videos, you can definitely see multiple small flashes happening right before the main blast. It resembles ammunition and other ordnance cooking off from the heat before it hits the main magazine in storage.
The red color is consistent with a Nitrate explosion. Reports have it as being explosive material seized off a ship several years ago and being stored there ever since. Reuters is reporting ammonium nitrate.
This video shows several smaller explosions before the big one went off. Seems like fireworks, which might have been stored nearby the warehouse with the nitrate.
Best source for news about this is probably the Al Jazeera Newsticker. There is a nearby hospital that has had to start turning people away because they were flooded with wounded, not to mention the building itself being damaged. The current numbers are 73 dead, with 3,700 injured.
Best source for news about this is probably the Al Jazeera Newsticker. There is a nearby hospital that has had to start turning people away because they were flooded with wounded, not to mention the building itself being damaged. The current numbers are 73 dead, with 3,700 injured.
Something like a 1.3 KILO ton explosion from ammonium nitrate will do that...
So it was worse than the OKC bombing because of the sheer volume of ammonium nitrate, but not "as bad" because there was no liquid nitromethane involved? ie: not built to be a bomb?
I - personally - think it would have been much worse if it wasn't for that huge grain silo sitting where it was. That may have deflected a lot of the energy of the blast that might have actually knocked down more buildings (and God know what other damage).
2750 TONS of ammonium nitrate. Ok bomber had 3 tons.. So 6000lbs vs 5 million lbs.
Look up 1946 Texas City. Similar thing of a ship catching fire with 2300 Tons of ammonium nitrate.
Or the Halifax explosion.
Either way .. Probably top 5 non nuclear explosions ever.
Look up 1946 Texas City. Similar thing of a ship catching fire with 2300 Tons of ammonium nitrate.
Or the Halifax explosion.
Either way .. Probably top 5 non nuclear explosions ever.
Damn.... that's a lot of fertilizer. What were they doing with all that stored in one place? The extra little mini-explosions give me pause. They really look like fireworks or ammunition cooking off, causing the main blast. This looks like an accident that's been waiting to happen for a really long time, and it doesn't look like that much stockpiled AN was destined for anyone's farms for a while.
So.. So far it was a fireworks cought on fire next door and spread to the bunker of fertilizer.
As for why?
2014 or so a russian ship had the fertilizer and got confiscated and put in the warehouse.
So a warehouse of ammonium nitrate 2750 Tons were just sitting there for 6-7 years in an unguarded warehouse. Next doore was fireworks. Fire then big badda boom
As for why?
2014 or so a russian ship had the fertilizer and got confiscated and put in the warehouse.
So a warehouse of ammonium nitrate 2750 Tons were just sitting there for 6-7 years in an unguarded warehouse. Next doore was fireworks. Fire then big badda boom
OKC added the liquid nitromethane (aka: NITRO) to the fertilizer for a much more effective explosion.
I'm just asking...for a friend, how much more effective the mixture is vs just the ammonium nitrate.
On top of that, the tall structure next door to the warehouse is a grain elevator and silos, where there is a risk of a grain dust explosion and fire.
Go to 1:49:
Yep, many kinds of large-granular dust, particularly grain particulates and sawdust are major accelerants.
This happened in the United States back in 1947, and was known as the Texas City disaster.
Here, a similar amount went up—but the fertilizer caught fire inside the ship, then called Grandcamp.
This Liberty ship became a skyscraper sized pipe bomb. It was moored next to the Monsanto styrene plant, in the same relative position as the large building in this disaster.
Texas City had oil storage tank farms just inland. Several slips down the dock was a similar C-10 ship, that had a similar load and exploded a day or so later. This unfortunate ship shared its name with a vessel also nearby a port explosion in Halifax.
The ship name?
High Flyer.
Musk’s starship wasn’t the biggest bit of steel that flew above Texas.
Here, a similar amount went up—but the fertilizer caught fire inside the ship, then called Grandcamp.
This Liberty ship became a skyscraper sized pipe bomb. It was moored next to the Monsanto styrene plant, in the same relative position as the large building in this disaster.
Texas City had oil storage tank farms just inland. Several slips down the dock was a similar C-10 ship, that had a similar load and exploded a day or so later. This unfortunate ship shared its name with a vessel also nearby a port explosion in Halifax.
The ship name?
High Flyer.
Musk’s starship wasn’t the biggest bit of steel that flew above Texas.
Wow. It's amazing I've never heard of that until now.
And such a different time in so many ways:
Port Chicago may have been worse:
As per the wiki, an Army Air Corp pilot said the fireball was miles in diameter.
The dumbest incident was Oppau.
When the fertilizer caked together and resisted pick axes, the idiots used dynamite to break it up!
These things happen more often than you’d think. Forget 9/11...that’s nothing.
The worst thing I can imagine would be an ANFO filled freighter sailing in New York harbor flanked by a venting LNG carrier on one side and a Very Large Crude Carrier spilling high test on the other.
A nuke would be merciful by comparison.
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