Just finished the book “The Texas City disaster,1947” by hugh Stephens, which describes the effects of the explosions of the ships Grandcamp and High Flyer.
He describes the damage at various distances and one web site claims it was bigger than Hiroshima.( Exaggeration?)
However I can not find any estimates of the explosions in kilotons that could be related to other blasts.
The board archives give a figure for the earlier Halifax disaster but does anyone know what the power of the Grandcamp and even bigger High Flyer blasts were?
All I know is what i’ve heard/seen growing up in the area, I have always heard “they had to redraw the maps after”, years ago I worked in TC (at a plant next to sterling chemical) and in our parking lot was a large (10 - 12 foot tall) anchor mounted in cement with a plaque that told some of the story and it said that this was the spot that the anchor landed in so the city mounted it and made it a memorial, my memory kinda sucks but it seems to me that the plaque said that the anchor had flown a mile and a half.
unclviny
Sounds like it was more a series of explosions than one big blast. Here’s a horrifying web link.
Poor Galveston: first the hurricane of 1900, then this!
I am no explosives expert, but I would guess that there is fome “fudge” avaialble in that the weight of explosives detonated at some location are not necessarily a direct measure of its absolute power.
For instance if the USS Ammuniton Ship exploded with 1,000 tones of bombs aboard, this does not necessarily mean it exploded with the force of 1 kiloton. The force of whatever it is they put in bombs at the time of the theoretical explosion is not necessarily equal to the 1,000 tons of TNT that 1 Kt is said to equal. And because the ship explodes, it does not necessarily mean all 1,000 tons of bombs were exploded. (IIRC, the Port Chicago explosion —besides resulting in catastrophic damage— showered the area with unexploded bombs.)
In the Texas explosions, the circle of some level of severe damage may have been greater than Hiroshima, resulting in the claim. The fertilizer or whatever that went up may be more powerful than TNT, but that’d be surprising. (To me.)
I may well be wrong, but IIRC the Hiroshima bomb was 21 kt. This would mean in the Texas incident(s), 21,000 tons (42,000,000 lbs.) of some explosive of power equal to TNT went up completely. Or, more explosive material of lesser power. I suppose a 1947 cargo ship could carry that much. Am I off in this?
It’s not exactly a scientific observation, but if an explosion with the force of the Hiroshima bomb went off in Texas City harbor, wouldn’t you expect casualties to be a lot higher than a few hundred?
The most recent figure for Hiroshima is about 15 kilotons.
However I remember reading somewhere that a nuclear explosion gives out only half its yield as blast the rest is light etc, so that 15kt would equal the blast effects of 7.5 kt TNT.
Seems like they had only loaded some1,900 of the 2,500 tons of fertilizer when they noticed the fire and that the blast happened when its believed one of the fuel oil bunkers gave way and mixed with molten fertilizer.
And to think I used to mix fertilizer with sugar as a kid and make fireworks!Lucky I’ve still got all my fingers.
According to The Pessimist’s Guide to History, the explosion of the Grandcamp “shook buildings 100 miles away,” “knocked two planes out of the air,” and “heaved a steel barge one hundred yards inland.” The entry continues on, “…the High Flyer exploded with a blast so strong, it registered on a seismograph in Denver.”
522 people were killed and over 3,000 injured out of a town of 16,000.
In a HazMat class, I learned why the first blast almost completely wiped out the TC fire department. They had just gotten a brand new fire truck, and at the sound of the alarm, everyone excitedly followed the new machine down to the dock to watch the new equipment work.
The TC disaster was the inspiration for the hazard signs you now see on the sides of trucks and containers. The firemen, you see, didn’t know what was in the Grand Camp. If they had, they might not have poured hundreds of gallons of water into the hold, where it soaked the fertilizer. When the ammonium nitrate got wet, it released all its oxygen, feeding the fire despite the cool water. When the oil tank ruptured from the heat, it provided fuel for a massive supply of oxygen. The rest is now taught to every rookie fire fighter.
–Nott
So… this begs the question: What really IS the Straight Dope on the true strength of these explosions?
Is ANFO unit-for-unit more or less powerful than TNT?
How much ANFO was on the ships?
Is it reasonable to assume under the circumstances that it all detonated completely?
What was the true explosive yeild of the Hiroshima bomb?
Wet ammonium nitrate is flammable? Is it more or less explosive than dry AN?