Beirut hit by massive explosion wounding several and damaging buildings

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ammonium nitrate is sensitized by mixing with combustible materials

As alluded to earlier the Texas City disaster of 1947 was caused by ammonium nitrate which had been treated with wax,
rosin and petroleum as moisture repellents

This sensitized the ammonium nitrate and p[rimed it for explosion when heated under pressure by sealed cargo hatches

Result was something akin to a small tactical nuke

Why use a jet plane when you can simply ordered 10,000 tons of the stuff. All you have to due is start a fire in one or two containers and eventually you will get a big BOOOOOM.

They need to look at recent ammonium nitrate purchasers and sellers going through Beirut. Who was aware they were stockpiling in that area. On the heels of the IRGC war games culminating in a maritime disaster waiting to happen at the foot of the Strait of Hormuz, this reeks of sabotage.

But then, I thought this was sabotage at the time:

a reply to: firerescue

Yep. It doesn't need to have fuel added to it to make it go boom though. It's usually treated for transport, which means that when it sits for years, or gets hot, it tends to go boom a lot easier.

a reply to: GenerationGap

This stuff had been sitting in that warehouse for 6 years. The company shipping it went out of business and their ship was seized is the story going around. They offloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in the warehouse, and due to various reasons, including corruption, couldn't get rid of it.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: GenerationGap

This stuff had been sitting in that warehouse for 6 years. The company shipping it went out of business and their ship was seized is the story going around. They offloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in the warehouse, and due to various reasons, including corruption, couldn't get rid of it.

Yeah, I'm sure that's what happened in Dianjin as well.

a reply to: GenerationGap

Ammonium nitrate is dangerous to work with. Accidents are going to happen, no matter who you're talking about.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Another thing is that at temps above 32 C (90 F) under goes a phase shift in its crystal structure

This causes it to crumble Also ammonium nitrate is hydroscopic and absorbs moisture from the air

All these causes problems in storage and shipping

The issue I'm having with this whole scenario is, ammonium nitrate doesn't go high ordinance unless a shockwave interacts with it.

Given that, what caused the shock wave, certainly not a lower ordinance explosion like the initial blast. Otherwise it, would have set the ammonium off during the initial blast. Which I believe was an attention grabbing faint to lure in first responders, for that second larger explosion.

But, what device was used to create that required shockwave, because ammonium nitrate has two explosive reactions, low ordinance and high ordinance.

We saw a high ordinance detonation.
Burning won't make fertilizer explode like that, only a shockwave.

Don't take my word for it, search "Detonation Velocity" and see what I'm trying to explain. I can only express the science as far as I understand it.

a reply to: ADVISOR

I'm fairly sure that's incorrect, or rather the 'shockwave' doesn't need to be on a scale visible to humans like the type you see following the main explosion. A few dozen fireworks or a metal cylinder under pressure exploding nearby from the heat would be enough to set it off - expecially when not stored correctly. A fireworks factory is highly likely to have vast ammounts of higly reactive certain powdered metals and contaminants that would make it a lot easier to achieve high ordinance.

When terrorists have used it to make bombs in foiled plots the prosecution show the device is viable by dropping a small sample from a few metres for small yeild then a weak blast charge (the same used in bomb disposal) to trigger a high ordinance blast.

I may be gettting it mixed up with a different 'recipe' that Al Qu'eda have used in recent years but fairly certain I'm not as in a foiled 2006/7 bomb plot in the UK where MI5 snuck in to the storage unit the bombers were storing the ammonium nitrae and swapped it for Baking Soda so they could continue monitoring them without the risk of them bein able to create a viable device which is too genius a tactic to forget.

a reply to: bastion

I still have yet to see anyone address the fact the one wall of the building housing the explosive is still standing.....

originally posted by: ADVISOR
what caused the shock wave,

The explosion caused the shockwave. The c. 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left in a warehouse for years caused the explosion. This is not unprecedented. Similar disasters have occurred in the past. The one in Texas city back in 1947 was hugely destructive and powerful.

The shockwave, or the "blast" wave is the is to do with increased pressure, or similar. I am no expert in fluid dynamics.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
a reply to: bastion

I still have yet to see anyone address the fact the one wall of the building housing the explosive is still standing.....

I don't know any detailed physics about the effects of an explosion on a buildin structure but I don't see why that would be an anomally. it seems to be the standard after effect of an unsophisticated amonium nitrate explosion (happen with McVeigh and all IRA bombs.

A standard explosion would follow the path of least resistance - in this case it's been caused by highly explosive material stored in awful conditions (look like ton bags stacked on top of each other in a damp warehouse with a few inches of dirt/debris on the floor). The reaction wouldn't have been clean, uniform and instantaneous due to the way it was arranged, poorly stored and nature of the proceeding fire, proof of this is in the black smoke then red smoke prior to explosion showing an incomplete reaction took place. Once the other walls and roof have collapsed and the explosion can rapidly escape there's little reason for the remain.

Also I'm fairly sure the remaining wall is from an adjacent building and not the warehouse the fertiliser was stored in. Pictures from a few months back show a standard hangar/metal shed with windows with walls a couple of inches thick. The remaining structure (beige wall) looks to be a few metres thick.

This article and video show the structure and it appears the warehouse (hangar 12) used to be somewhere in the big crater that's now been flooded with sea water. The entire building was vapourised. www.the-sun.com...

a reply to: Vasa Croe

The building left partly standing wasn't the warehouse storing the Ammonium Nitrate. It was an adjacent grain silo and judging from the amount of grain visible afterwards the may have been full. So a concrete structure full of grain would absorb a lot of the blast. In the images you can see half the silos were destroyed closes to the blast and the ones on the opposite side are still standing.

Just search for "Deflagration to detonation transition". Easy.
You know what's interresting in all of those vids and no one has mentioned? The speed of sound in the ground being much higher than in the air. People were warned but they lacked the knowledge and experience. When you hear and feel as if a giant stomped on the ground you better put down your phone, take cover and cover your ears.
They even see an enormous explosion and they dont expect the sound- and shock-wave. Well, thank you for recording the video for us to the very end!
You can be the last man standing when you listen to the ground like a snake. It's faster than shrapnels if it's far enough.
The speed of sound in the ground is depending on the rock 6-13 km s-1

Use headphones to hear what I mean.

a reply to: bastion

As mentioned in the Scum article you linked to, this is the owner of the Ammonium Nitrate who abandoned it and the ship carrying it in the port of Beirut.

Siberian Times

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
a reply to: bastion

I still have yet to see anyone address the fact the one wall of the building housing the explosive is still standing.....

You have the wrong building. That is the remnants of the grain silo.

See following sat images. The grain silo is ringed in yellow. The white arrow is the warehouse where the Ammonium Nitrate was stored.



Grain Silo - Yellow arrow

White box - Location of AN storage warehouse

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Take a look at this video @ :01 and :02 seconds

www.youtube.com...

According to Beirut fire officials a fire was reported in Warehouse 9 which then spread to Warehouse 12. Warehouse 12 is apparently where the Ammonium Nitrate was stored.

... a fire that started in Warehouse 9 before spreading to Warehouse 12, where the chemicals were being stored

From Daily Mail link posted later in post.

See map showing apparent locations of Warehouse 9 and Warehouse 12. Please note this is just my interpretation of reading the news reports.

The three men in the famous photograph were first on the scene trying to unlock the door to Warehouse 12.

As you can see there is confusion here. Is the image caption wrong? Is this an image of Warehouse 11 which has an entrance labelled 12? Which leads me to think that Warehouse 9 is actually 11? Any confirmation of what the Arabic states?




See following footage. Unsure what is cooking off in the Warehouse. There has been claims of fireworks in earlier reports.

Not sure if the first part is Warehouse 12, but the second part of the footage can be matched up to Warehouse 12. It was taken from the roof of the building on the north side of the Grain Silo.

See roof footage from 0:30 seconds. You can see a support structure from 0:36 seconds.





I believe that the following shows the location of where that footage was filmed?

You can also see in the footage that something was cooking off (firework like) in Warehouse 12 before the main explosion.



Daily Mail News Link

a reply to: Waterglass

What am I meant to be seeing??

Look at this video , is it real or fake
looks like some ordnance going in to cause the big explosion

be aware the audio is pretty loud

beirut explosion