Blowy uppy thing in Beirut

[hellkat]

They're trying to reckon it was a fireworks factory.
Yeah, right.

https://www.rt.com/news/497080-beirut-explosion-lebanon-videos/

Over 70 dead so far
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[piazza]

Something to do with aluminium something or other. 2750 tonnes of it apparently lying for years in a warehouse.

[yen_powell]

Terry Waite's radiator burst, that'll happen if you keep pulling at it for months on end.

edit, I wrote that before I saw the explosion on the news, Jesus!
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[martin734]

It looks very much like ANFO or some similar industrial explosive. The shock front and expansion rate looks to be relatively slow moving typical of ANFO at 2500-3500 m/s. A faster, higher pressure explosive would have caused a noticeable depression on the water as the shockwave passed over it as well as a very distinctive "backrush" immediately after the explosion as air rushes back into the vacuum caused by a very high velocity explosive.
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[Riejufixing]

A search shows it was something to do with, he said cautiously, nearly 3,00 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored somewhere.

That is interesting. It is very widely available, and used for quite legitimate purposes, both in mining operations, and growing stuff (agricultural fertiliser), as well as other things.

However, in the one case it does not just go off on its own; various additives and certain procedures are necessary, and in the other case it is very difficult to see how this could happen, on any scale.

The explosion was indeed huge, and unconfined. Here is some footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93tV6-0Ugwk


I suspect some cause, but even if it's only contamination of the material, there has to be another "dimension", which nay not be known right now.

[Riejufixing]

[Howling Terror]

There's a paper-trail that goes back 7 years to when 2,750 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate was put into storage at the port's warehouses.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eel-oRNWoAkPAV7?format=png&name=large

I'm sure some of BCF's chemists will fill us in with how volatile H₄N₂O₃ can be.


https://shiparrested.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Arrest-News-11th-issue.pdf
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[hellkat]

[Ste]

inb4 Rebel.

Aliens did it after making crop circles but before putting on some flashy light displays.

[martin734]

[stinkwheel]

Ammonium nitrate isn't explosive by itself. It needs a reducing agent mixed through it too, and to be confined (a ships hold would do it).

Heavy fuel oil would do it. Say if the ships fuel tank had leaked into the cargo. Still needs a reasonable detonating explosion to create enough of a pressure wave to set it off.

EDIT: Even when mixed, ammonium nitrate explosive doesn't just go bang, it's pretty stable. The IRA used to mix it up in cement mixers for car bombs.
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[Riejufixing]

[martin734]

[Ste]

https://i.imgur.com/a0jJxzK.jpg

[MCN]

Anfo.
Is the weapon of choice for rock blasting all over the world.


Involves drilling several holes of a certain diameter and spacing and depth (for custom broken rock size).
Pumped full of anfo (ammonium nitrate and Diesel fuel emulsion).
A couple of slammer sticks/sausages of high explosive (TNT/Dynamite type stuff) set so far into the emulsion to hammer the anfo.
And the all important detonator and fuse.
Fuse material is interesting chemistry stuff.
A thin plastic tube about 4mm diameter coated with a very fast reacting compound that is ignited by a spark.
The 'flame' then burns along inside the tube to the detonator.
It keeps the blast explosive safe until set off by the person with the ignition box.
I think older style detonators were set off inside the explosive by electric means.
Radio silence maintained during blasting not realy to prevent the radio setting it off prematurely but really to allow uninterrupted communication for blast crew and for any emergency. Free from the chatter of every other phuquer.

A mine I worked on would pump 30 tons of anfo into the blast section to loosen ore and over-burden. That was in three separate pits every day. Blast sections 30' deep x 100' x 100'.
The real skill was to be at a place with a clear view of the event without risk of a Volkswagen size rock landing on you from 200 ft in the air. 😎
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Tracey Suntan-King]

Tenuous connection alert....the blast wave reached the southern areas of Cyprus, 100 miles away
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[wr6133]

I've seen 250 tonnes of AN stored in a UK warehouse next to a 33000 litre diesel tank (that leaked), so I wouldn't be at all surprised if in Lebanon storage practices are even worse. You don't actually need FO, you can use sugar among other innocuous sounding things.

Detonation isn't easy, you can't do it with model rocketry dets and repurposed cartridges, you have to make some kind of booster, years ago you could you get the stuff to do that from blinds in small quarries (failed blasts with the explosive still in the bore hole) but I'd bet these days they are better at cleaning up. I've actually always wondered is the reason (UK) domestic camel fuckers seem to prefer TATP due to detonation issues because as a product it's harder to make and way more dangerous to the user.

I've hit enough keywords I may as well say........ Hi GCHQ.

[Diggs]

When I was a kid, we used to steal nitrate-based fertiliser from farms and try to set it off. Most farms had 'blue bag' and 'white bag' laying around in Dutch barns, which looking back on it now was madness!

We used to mix it with sugar, flour, turps, paraffin, diesel or whatever we could find, make a trail for the fuse, light it and stand back. Most of the time nothing happened because the trail would go out before it reached the tin (wrong proportions, chalk in fertiliser etc), but when we got it to work it was spectacular.

A particular favourite was putting it under a propped-up metal bin-lid because it would send it into the air like tossing a coin. Another was putting it in a tin with a 'rookie' for the detonator.

Happy days
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[weasley]

[doggone]

[wr6133]

One does wonder how long it is before Xi Jinping shows up with a sackful of Chinese money to build a new port, 25 times bigger and that can never actually be repaid by the Lebanese.

[MCN]

[Diggs]

[Easy-X]

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

Interesting how it was immediately reported as an ammonium nitrate explosion*. Unless the warehouse was only stocked with that one material (in which case what could have set it off?) everyone just went, "Oh yeah, that'll be that huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate that's sat there for years." If it was common knowledge you'd hope someone would have said, "Let's dispose of it (safely!)"

*Despite everyone else receiving such reports, the POTUS posted a reactionary tweet saying it was an attack. Make the situation even worse, whydoncha?