Beirut

[viscousmemories]

Following the news of the explosion in Beirut, and it's horrifying.

Beirut Rocked By Massive Explosion, Causing Injuries And Widespread Damage : NPR

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Apocalypse in #Beirut complete destruction #beirutexplosion #beirutblast #انفجار_بيروت pic.twitter.com/mzExIq2N6u

— Shada Omar شدا عمر (@Shadaomar) August 4, 2020

[Miisa]

I want to believe it was a terrible accident with poorly stored fertilizer. But it is hard in these times to think the best about us.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

And now You know how Q bullshit gains traction even with smart people.

The Generals = Some Q bullshit he read on Twitter. https://t.co/7K9q25GqBq

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) August 4, 2020

[vremya]

Somehow The Guardian got a video of the actual explosion. It's big.

Beirut explosion

[viscousmemories]

There was a big fire for some time before the explosion, so apparently a lot of different people were taking video of it from a lot of different angles before the big explosion. I saw a lot of them and they're terrifying.

It does seem to have been 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate (for reference the Oklahoma bombers used 2 tons to blow up the federal building).

Ammonium nitrate: what is the chemical blamed for blast in Lebanese capital? | World news | The Guardian

[viscousmemories]

Lebanon & Ways to Help

[viscousmemories]

Sad day for Beirut & Lebanon with the big explosion at Beirut Port. All thoughts are with the lost and loved ones. Hope never leaves my city after all. #Beirut #PrayForLebanon #prayforbeirut #PrayersForBeirut #Lebanon #LebanonExplosion #لبنان #بيروت #بيروت_في_قلوبنا pic.twitter.com/NJMQeVQcm8

— Nadim Serhal (@nadimserhal) August 5, 2020

[Dragar]

Originally Posted by Miisa

I want to believe it was a terrible accident with poorly stored fertilizer. But it is hard in these times to think the best about us.

Rough analysis does match the story. It's a lot of nitrate.

https://twitter.com/sinabooeshaghi/s...884299778?s=19

[JoeP]

Warehouse to where house ...

[ceptimus]

There have been plenty of similar Ammonium Nitrate explosions. One happened in the Chinese port of Tianjin in 2015 - though that was only about 800 tons of nitrate rather than the 2750 tons in Beirut - less than a third of the amount. Officially the Tianjin explosion killed 173 people, plus 8 missing.

The Texas City Disaster of 1947 exploded, in total, an even greater tonnage of nitrate than the Beirut blast, killing at least 581 people.

Whenever you see a politician, or anyone for that matter, talking about a disaster and saying, "We must learn lessons and ensure that this can never happen again", remember that they're talking bollocks.

[ceptimus]

It looks like the structure that is (partially) still standing nearest to the explosion site is a row of storage silos. These are usually made from reinforced concrete and typically the ones in ports are mostly full of grain. The hills of rubble you can see around the remains of the silos are probably a mixture of shattered concrete plus the grain that was inside - grain that would have been used to make bread for the Lebanese.

The silos will have offered some protection from the blast to the city behind - but obviously nowhere near enough protection.

[JoeP]

If you've watched other videos of this, you'll know there are regular explosions before the 2,700 ton explosion. Bear that in mind as you watch this ... it gets loud.

BBC Arabic journalist Maryem Taoumi was conducting an interview when the explosion in Beirut took place

She was knocked over by the force of the blast but is safe

Warning: Contains upsetting scenes https://t.co/xdMWMBsOWJ pic.twitter.com/53dGzkXNEr

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 5, 2020

[JoeP]

I hope & expect that ports and warehouses all over the world are asking themselves, hey do we have any ammonium nitrate in any of these containers...

[Miisa]

I was curious as to how it compared to the Halifax explosion, and it seems it has already been ranked and listed

Artificial non-nuclear explisions, ranked

[JoeP]

Death Toll Rises In Beirut Blast Linked To Seized Russian-Owned Ship

Give some suggestions as to why the fertiliser was just left there; says that the warehouse it was in had a break which meant the door didn't close properly; and the immediate cause of the first explosion was welding work on said door.

I'm not at all confident the families of those welders will have had life insurance.

[Stormlight]

8.4.2020 Beirut - storage before the blast : CatastrophicFailure

[Ari]

Drive by science explosives version, Ammonium Nitrate is one of the more basic looking and reasonably safe nitrate high-explosives around, but there are a number of big don’ts with it. Chemically it’s one nitrogen with a little too much hydrogen and another nitrogen with a bit too much oxygen (yes these are technical terms) ionically bonded to each other to create a kind of raised valley as this is a stable but high energy state for the molecule. If it really had the energy and motivation it would be even more stable as the two nitrogens combined to make N2 and the Hydrogen and Oxygen formed water, both releasing energy as they form, in a perfect world. How big that hill is to get over before dropping into the deeper valley is part of its stability.

A lot of AN explosives, like ANFO, a popular blasting explosive, work on the practice of sensitizing the nitrate to more easily sustain a blast wave through the mix or to otherwise shrink that hill, but only when combined. A ‘high explosive’ in simple terms is a hypersonic (in that material) compression wave that bumps the molecules over their high valley hump and down the hill releasing energy as they go, in a wave that moves almost instantly through the material.

Which is a lot to say that one of the big no-no’s is having substances that produce hard high velocity shockwaves near a whole bunch of AN because while the hill it needs to get over is big, it’s not insurmountable and it really only needs to make it over that hill once for a large amount of it to all go up at once. Although that certainly wasn’t their only issue, I presume some of the fireworks got an inevitable hit or an intermixed reaction occurred.

The large amount of red smoke seen is nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and is how Nitrogen would like to be stuck to oxygen so I’m unsure if it’s potentially part of the AN that was liberated but didn’t fully explode, or it’s free Nitrogen and Oxygen molecules that figured ‘good enough’ when recombining but the volume expansion of gasses especially when mixed with other ingredients is part of what makes AN a good pusher style explosive.

The clouds seen right after are infact clouds. The same effect can be seen around volcanos and fighter jets close to or around mach 1, but can be made at home in a bottle if you can blow hard enough. The almost moisture saturated air gets compressed by the shock wave allowing a tiny bit more water vapor to dissolve into it, but is then followed by a low pressure area that causes the air to suddenly become super saturated with the water falling out of solutions as tiny drops. The marine air really increases this but once the wave has passed the cloud doesn’t last long, but does mean the shockwave is always just ahead of this cloud formation.

[JoeP]

Please accept this token of my wish to that post twice.

[SR71]

I recall one of these events not too long ago in West, Texas. Nowhere near as big but pretty well wrecked the town anyway.

Deadly 2013 Texas plant blast deemed "criminal...

[JoeP]

Lebanese government quits following Beirut port explosion | World news | The Guardian

Senior politicians had partnered with oligarchs, taking enormous cuts from development contracts and the supply of essential services, such as fuel importation, and waste management.

The result had been a small number of hugely wealthy officials and businessmen running the country with outside patronage.

I'm glad nothing like that could happen in Britain or the USA.

[JoeP]

Beirut First Responders Captured in Photo Moments Before Explosion

Nine of the ten-person emergency response team are still missing, while the only female on the team, 25-year-old Sahar Faris, is confirmed dead.

[Ari]

This is an incredible forensics breakdown that uses photos and video to create a almost perfectly matched 3d modeled simulation. This includes pictures of how the nitrate was stored, and well, wow, it was just a bunch of leaking hole filled sacks!

Explosion de Beyrouth : le désastre reconstitué...