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Beirut explosion

siegfreid

HONOURED MEMBER RIP
Premium Member
Commentators seem surprised that this explosion was caused by Ammonium Nitrate & keep saying it's safe to store if done properly . I'd say it's never safe to store in quantity . History is littered wit examples of Ammonium Nitrate explosions causing the most ghastly damage . Its probably cause more death & destructon in accidental explosions than anything else . How it can ever be described as a "safe" chemical is beyond me . It should never be store in large quantites or anywhere near population centres
 
We had a similar accident in 2001 in France (Toulouse), 300 tons of Ammonitrate in a factory (AZF).
I don't uderstand why humans don't learn from their experiences...
What a stupidity to store so much in the same place !
 
2700 tons of Ammonium nitrate is equivalent to roughly 1100 tons of TNT - 1.1 Kilotons. For comparison Hiroshima "Little Boy" was 15 Kilotons TNT equivalent....
 
In 2013, 270 tons stored by a fertilizer company exploded in West, TX (near Waco) after being set on fire by an arsonist killing 15 people.
 
According to a report on AOL, President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures. He called it "unacceptable".
 
I have looked at the many filmclips of this desaster on the net. That final huge detonation took place just after a pillar of "redbrown clouds" (turning orange higher up in the sky) had been catapulted up into the sky in the middle of the "graywhite" huge smokeplume. From that colour I deduce Nitric Oxide NO2 , the only nitrous gas I could find with that colour. But, I do not know how NO2 can lead to such a huge detonation. May be somebody here can explain ? The Texas City desaster 1947 has very many parallels with Beirut now.
Bellifortis.
 
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Bellifortis,

Good spot (Texas), have a look at RFNA and Dinitrogen Tetroxide.

TimG
 
Hi Tim,
I have looked at those species. But, watching the filmclips on the net a very strong fire had been raging there for some time, so the temperature, especially in the center, was very high. So any Dinitrogentetroxide would have been straight away disassociated into NO2. Now this species is a very strong oxidiser. To develop into a detonable cloud it had to mix with a lots of carbonaceous matter. Recently a US documentary was aired on TV here about the accident in a "Titan Missile Silo", where a spanner that fell down punctured the tank. The 2 component propellant is hypergolic. But, there the reaction developed to an explosion after some time, but not to such a huge detonation.Regards,
Bellifortis.
Bellifortis,

Good spot (Texas), have a look at RFNA and Dinitrogen Tetroxide.

TimG
 
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I'm just trying to imagine the reaction of an EOD officer being called in and asked to deal with 2,750 tons of unstable AN....

This reminds me a bit of the SS Richard Montgomery, a sunken transport ship in the Thames Estuary said to contain 1,400 tons of EO. It's been sitting there since WW2; every now and then people take a look at it, shake their heads and decide to leave well alone.
 
There doesn't seem much discussion about the multiple small explosions, prior to the big bang. Were they fireworks or SAA going off? One commentator said the docks were controlled by Hezbollah, who have a certain interest in explosives.
 
I'm just trying to imagine the reaction of an EOD officer being called in and asked to deal with 2,750 tons of unstable AN....

This reminds me a bit of the SS Richard Montgomery, a sunken transport ship in the Thames Estuary said to contain 1,400 tons of EO. It's been sitting there since WW2; every now and then people take a look at it, shake their heads and decide to leave well alone.

Here's the list of what's on the SS Richard Montgomery.

_______________________________________________

The weights given in the table below are those of the
explosive content of the cargo and not the shipped weight.
LOCATION TYPE OF MUNITIONS EXPLOSIVE
WEIGHTS (TONNES)


HOLD NO1
Deep tanks Aft
79 cases signals 3 (pyrotechnics)
1429 cases wp 100lb smoke bombs 65 (white phosphorus)
Deep tanks Forward
30 Boxes boosters 31 (pyrotechnics)
786 boxes signals
Lower hold/tween deck
1407 500lb bombs TNT AN M64A1 167
850 1000lb bombs TNT AN M65 208
1500 250lb bombs TNT AN M57 84


HOLD NO 2
Lower hold
1068 1000lb SAP bombs TNT AW-M59 140
574 500lb SAP bombs AN M58 41
286 2000lb GP TNT AN-M66 144
588 1000lb AN M65 140
Tween deck
521-580 B260lb fragmentation bombs AN M81 9
2297 cases of fragmentation bomb clusters 9
AN M1A1 (6 x 20lb fused)
and/or AN M4A1 (3 x 23lb unfused)
and/or AN-M81 B260lb


HOLD NO 3
Lower hold/tween deck
1170 SAP 1000lb bombs 163
406 GP 1000lb bombs 99
1351 SAP 500lb bombs 97

TOTAL on board 1400 tonnes
 
Here's the list of what's on the SS Richard Montgomery.

TOTAL on board 1400 tonnes

Thanks. So that's half the quantity of explosive of the Beirut blast (possibly more in equivalent terms, if TNT etc are a bit stronger than AN?).

Has anyone plotted the blast zone on a map, showing the area of total destruction, partial destruction and minor damage? I presume that it would do severe damage to Sheerness and give Southend a bit of a shaking...?
 
I was told once that Southend would need to be totally re-glazed and would lose some older buildings. That was a long time ago though. I don't know if anyone updates these estimates.
 
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