Off Topic > General Discussion
Beirut-shima
12oh2alarm:
--- Quote from: Allan F on August 11, 2020, 01:05:00 AM ---
--- Quote from: mako88sb on August 07, 2020, 04:26:54 PM ---
--- Quote from: raven on August 07, 2020, 03:59:09 PM --- Canada had a somewhat similar incident during World War 1, when a ship carrying high explosives caught fire after colliding in the harbour and then exploded. It took out much of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
--- End quote ---
I was telling my oldest daughter about this and that I thought it was the biggest non-nuclear explosion but told her to check it out. Yes, at the time it was but I didn’t know about the Texas City one in 1947 that was a bit bigger. Ammonia Nitrate was the cause of that one as well. More than twice as bad as Beirut. Sad to see something like this in a country already struggling.
--- End quote ---
What about the Pepcon-disaster, where ammonium perchlorate exploded? Where is that on the scale?
--- End quote ---
According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions, Pepcon was the seventh largest among the "Largest accidental artificial non-nuclear explosions by magnitude". With Halifax #1, Beirut #5.
bknight:
--- Quote from: 12oh2alarm on August 11, 2020, 04:29:23 PM ---
--- Quote from: Allan F on August 11, 2020, 01:05:00 AM ---
--- Quote from: mako88sb on August 07, 2020, 04:26:54 PM ---
--- Quote from: raven on August 07, 2020, 03:59:09 PM --- Canada had a somewhat similar incident during World War 1, when a ship carrying high explosives caught fire after colliding in the harbour and then exploded. It took out much of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
--- End quote ---
I was telling my oldest daughter about this and that I thought it was the biggest non-nuclear explosion but told her to check it out. Yes, at the time it was but I didn’t know about the Texas City one in 1947 that was a bit bigger. Ammonia Nitrate was the cause of that one as well. More than twice as bad as Beirut. Sad to see something like this in a country already struggling.
--- End quote ---
What about the Pepcon-disaster, where ammonium perchlorate exploded? Where is that on the scale?
--- End quote ---
According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions, Pepcon was the seventh largest among the "Largest accidental artificial non-nuclear explosions by magnitude". With Halifax #1, Beirut #5.
--- End quote ---
I was surprised to find that the Texas City explosion was not even listed in the wiki list.
The cargo hold of the SS Grandcamp which contained 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate blew up causing a massive chain reaction of explosions in Galveston.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster
ETA more than the Beirut (2750 tons)
ETA2 Oh there it is listed as right behind the Beirut explosion. It must have been missed in the listing at the top of the wiki link because it is at the bottom.
LionKing:
A Russian expert says that most of the amount is stolen and 2750 tons would have erased Beirut from the map.
Peter B:
--- Quote from: LionKing on August 13, 2020, 06:59:58 AM ---A Russian expert says that most of the amount is stolen and 2750 tons would have erased Beirut from the map.
--- End quote ---
I'm not an explosives expert, but I can do a bit of maths. And I think I disagree with the Russian expert.
The explosive power of 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate has been rated at ~2 kilotons of TNT. That makes it about one-tenth of the explosive power of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Comparing the damage to Beirut with the damage to the Japanese cities, that makes sense to me. The Japanese cities suffered massive damage with few buildings surviving undamaged. Mostly that was the ten times higher explosive power, but probably partly the fact that the atomic bombs detonated in the air above the city. The fact that the Beirut explosion happened at ground/sea level means a lot of the blast was absorbed by buildings in the immediate vicinity, and by the ground underneath. Yet even so it did a lot of damage.
ineluki:
--- Quote from: LionKing on August 13, 2020, 06:59:58 AM ---A Russian expert
--- End quote ---
Oh well... one of those, they are beloved by Conspiraholics of all kind.
1. Who is this expert?
2. What makes him an expert?
3. What reasons beyond "i am an expert" does he provide?
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