# Beirut explosion **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 4, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267 "2020-08-04T18:57:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/41 "2020-08-05T10:54:08Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Before you mix it with the fuel oil, it’s not explosive at all, and after you mix it with the fuel oil, it takes something like dynamite to detonate it. So black powder as used in fireworks might set it off or not? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/42 "2020-08-05T11:18:04Z")
Over 100 confirmed dead now. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/43 "2020-08-04T22:41:08Z")
> **[Beirut Port officials placed under house arrest after explosion as death toll...](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-05/massive-explosion-rocks-lebanese-capital-of-beirut/12524632)** > > Lebanon's Cabinet places all Beirut port officials who have overseen storage and security at the facility in the last six years under house arrest as the investigation into the massive explosion ramps up. fire plus sodium nitrate = kaboom And if the people of Beirut say it was a very big explosion, you know you are listening to experts. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/44 "2020-08-04T22:58:35Z")
Preexisting thread: > [@Beirut explosion](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-holy-shit/917267): > > Found a good article embedding several of the best shots. I wonder what kilotonnage this rates at? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/45 "2020-08-05T04:26:01Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > fire plus sodium nitrate = kaboom Ammonium Nitrate - 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to be exact. The Oklahoma bombing in 1995 was only two tons. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/46 "2020-08-05T08:14:22Z")
Ammonium nitrate is not explosive. It doesn’t even ‘burn’. It’s an oxidizer, like oxygen. Ammonium nitrate + carbon is explosive – typically Ammonium nitrate + Fuel Oil (ANFO), or in the case of the (American) Texas City port disaster, petrolatum and paraffin. On a technical level, those of us interested in safety precautions will be interested to know what the oxidizer was stored next to. Typically ANFO explosions are triggered by dynamite/gelignite, but as accidents like this show, just getting it hot will cause it to decompose, creating a potential hazard. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/47 "2020-08-05T08:30:32Z")
It’s already on the wikipedia page for large conventional (as opposed to nuclear) explosions, of course. It’s listed as a the equivalent of “approximately a few hundred tons of TNT” although the page specifically about the event says “ranging from a few hundred tonnes to three thousand tonnes of TNT”. If the latter, that would easily put it into the top 5 largest conventional explosions, ever, maybe even 2nd or 3rd place. (The top slot belongs to deliberate military testing). Any time you can put “kilo” in front of “ton” you’re talking utter catastrophe. On a more practical note: aside from the dead and injured right now, the explosion destroyed a major grain elevator which is not going to help food supply in an already economically stressed city suffering from the sort of shortages everyone is having this year, reportedly _destroyed three hospitals_ and damaged a fourth. The only good news, if you could call it that, was that this did take place in the port so a lot of the force of the blast went over the water (which did damage a couple ships). If this had occurred in a city center it would have been even worse. Once again, 2020 delivers the suck… ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/48 "2020-08-05T12:00:45Z")
**Moderator Note** Two threads on the same topic have been merged. Original thread titles: Who needs terrorists when you can do this Beirut: holy shit! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/49 "2020-08-05T12:02:00Z")
IMO the new revised thread title is a vast improvement. Thanks for good work, eh. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/50 "2020-08-05T12:35:42Z")
Here’s **[Beirut Seaport’s grain silos on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/search/beirut+seaport/@33.9011724,35.5258349,827a,35y,270h,39.16t/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en)**. Here’s **[the same location in a drone photo this morning](https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/digital-images/org/71070b22-1cb7-4e46-bd48-3c607601fe7a.jpg)**. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/51 "2020-08-05T13:43:24Z")
What was the carbon in the West, TX fertilizer storage explosion? Or the Oppau fertilizer plant exploding? I thought diesel oil was used mainly because AN decomposition gave off a lot of excess oxygen—which in the Beirut explosion combined with atmospheric nitrogen, yielding a slew of colored nitrogen oxides—and that oxygen could be useful for burning hydrocarbons and increasing the energetics from the charge? And it was cheap. The point being, I thought AN, given sufficient heating and packing, was capable of undergoing explosive decomposition without additional required compounds? The yield would just be less. 10-15% of the total explosive chemical potential energy, per the links in that Jeffrey Lewis Twitter time line I linked to. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/52 "2020-08-05T13:50:22Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > The point being, I thought AN, given sufficient heating and packing, was capable of undergoing explosive decomposition without additional required compounds? The yield would just be less. 10-15% of the total explosive chemical potential energy, per the links in that Jeffrey Lewis Twitter time line I linked to. **[According to WIkipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate#Explosives)**: > Ammonium nitrate decomposes, not explosively, into the [gases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas) [nitrous oxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide) and [water vapor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_vapor) when heated; however, it can be induced to decompose explosively by [detonation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detonation). Large stockpiles of the material can also be a major fire risk due to their supporting [oxidation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidation), a situation which can easily escalate to detonation. Explosions are not uncommon: relatively minor incidents occur most years, and several large and devastating explosions have also occurred. TL,DR: Yes, ammonium nitrate definitely can detonate without the addition of any other material. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/53 "2020-08-05T13:55:16Z")
I looked at the google map, there wasn’t a not-straight line in that area. It was all built up to the water. And the building that’s (mostly) standing was in the middle of a spit. So yeah, that’s the explosion crater. https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.9015727,35.5179233&z=17&output=embed&dg=ntvb Google has already marked where the explosion happened Side note 1 - Google notes “Port of Beirut - temporarily closed” (assuredly) and “Beirut Port Silos - temporarily closed” (I don’t think that’s going to be temporary) Side note 2, totally irrelevant - There’s a neighborhood near the explosion called Karantina, which does come from the same word as our quarantine. So that must be where the ships had to stay while they made sure no one was bringing in disease. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/54 "2020-08-05T14:47:13Z")
Yeah, I was curious about what Melbourne meant, as I’d heard AN would do much as your cite describes. Though, this was in the context of a general intro to chemical safety class. The instructor was using the example as an illustration of a positive feedback loop between temperature and reaction rates, and the whole thing easily could have been dumbed down for us so we’d get the point that rising temperatures in the reaction vessel in the lab, might lead to a big problem if we were taken unaware. I can easily see carbon compounds serving to catalyze the decomposition though. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/55 "2020-08-05T15:10:32Z")
If you are interested in why the ammonium nitrate was being stored, see: > **[2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was impounded in Beirut's port after it was...](https://www.businessinsider.com/beirut-explosion-ammonium-nitrate-was-impounded-in-2014-reports-say-2020-8)** > > The cargo of an abandoned ship, the MV Rhosus, was behind the cataclysmic blast at Beirut's port on Tuesday, state media in Lebanon said. citing this article: m/v Rhosus - Arrest and Personal Freedom of the Crew in: > **[The-Arrest-News-11th-issue.pdf](https://shiparrested.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-Arrest-News-11th-issue.pdf)** ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/56 "2020-08-05T15:20:23Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > the white building next to the explosion was a group of silos so it would have been nothing but cement and rebar. that’s why it was still standing. The silo building is still partially there (looks like a ripped-open wasp nest) but the buildings on the other side of the silos are completely erased. [https://imgur.com/a/b7uiSx5](https://imgur.com/a/b7uiSx5) ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/57 "2020-08-05T16:32:13Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I believe the white dome is the shock wave which is compressing the air as it travels out. The humidity that is normally in the air gets compressed by this wave and becomes visible water vapor. If you position a pressure sensor in the path of the blast wave, you’ll see **[something like this plot](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Flavio_Stochino/publication/244490302/figure/fig21/AS:668564646289412@1536409641137/dealized-pressure-time-curve-for-free-air-explosion-Department-of-the-Army-1990.png)**. The vertical axis is pressure, horizontal axis is time. Where the plot says “positive duration”, local pressure is above ambient. This is the shock wave emanating outward from the blast; that sharp leading edge of it is what shattered the concrete grain silos at the port and (after some dissipation) broke windows for miles around. This rise in air pressure compresses the air, causing an adiabatic temperature increase. Since the temperature at this point is higher than ambient, you will never see any condensation in this part of the blast wave. However, this compressive wave can still sometimes be seen in slow-motion videos because the increased density changes the index of refraction of the air, causing a local lensing effect (see e.g. **[this video at 1:28](https://youtu.be/HFsAbkkAV-Q?t=86)**). That blast wave moving outward from the center of explosion has a lot of momentum, and it actually pulls a slight vacuum behind it. Where the plot says “negative duration,” the pressure is below ambient, causing an adiabatic temperature decrease. If the air is humid, this temperature decrease can create a visible wave of condensation/fog. So when the PEPCON plant in Henderson, NV blew up in 1988 in a similarly-sized explosion, there was no visible condensation wave because the humidity in Henderson is pretty low (see **[this video at 1:18](https://youtu.be/VRyfMM2FTlk?t=72)**). OTOH, if there was a sea breeze over Beirut yesterday, then the humidity at ground zero was likely pretty high, which explains the dense condensation wave associated with the blast. You can often see similar condensation waves in footage of aerial bombardment of the jungle during the Vietnam war (e.g. **[this video at 0:10](https://youtu.be/gaxVFcQoaYs?t=5)**). You can see both of these features manifest in the sudden change in air velocity during nuclear device tests: the initial shock wave shows as the local wind changing suddenly from zero to some large value, and then after a short time the wind reverses direction. In **[this test footage](https://youtu.be/vMopb1eN2t4?t=40)**, the destructive shock wave arrives at 0:43, and about one second later you see the pressure decrease to below ambient, along with a reversal of the flow. That same sequence of events is shown in other clips in that same link. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/58 "2020-08-05T16:43:11Z")
They’re saying the Ammonia Nitrate was confiscated from a boat six years ago and stored in that building. The port officials in charge are being investigated for mishandling hazardous materials. I’m definitely reminded of the Oklahoma City blast. Same material. Ammonia Nitrate is powerful stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/59 "2020-08-05T16:54:46Z")
I’ve been playing with the distance measuring tool in Google Maps to get an idea of the severity. Like I read that St George Hospital was decimated, and that is 2000 feet away. And there is the story about the BBC reporter knocked off her feet during the blast; the BBC bureau is about a mile away. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267/60 "2020-08-05T17:54:17Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The silo building is still partially there (looks like a ripped-open wasp nest) but the buildings on the other side of the silos are completely erased. Wow. Looking at it close up it looks like it took out an entire bank of silos. All the grain spilled out and didn’t burn. Beirut imports most of it’s food so that’s going to screw up their food chain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-explosion/917267.md?page=4)