Beirut-shima

[12oh2alarm]

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.

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.

What about the Pepcon-disaster, where ammonium perchlorate exploded? Where is that on the scale?

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]

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.

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.

What about the Pepcon-disaster, where ammonium perchlorate exploded? Where is that on the scale?

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.

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]

A Russian expert says that most of the amount is stolen and 2750 tons would have erased Beirut from the map.

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]

A Russian expert

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?

[LionKing]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/english.alarabiya.net/en/amp/News/middle-east/2020/08/09/Beirut-would-be-erased-had-full-chemical-load-exploded-bulk-likely-stolen-Expert?espv=1

[Luther]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/english.alarabiya.net/en/amp/News/middle-east/2020/08/09/Beirut-would-be-erased-had-full-chemical-load-exploded-bulk-likely-stolen-Expert?espv=1

There are some quotes, but they don't show his analysis.

I'm sceptical also.  It's not my area of expertise, so maybe I'm missing something, but the yield should be far less than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.  So unless there's some reason that Beirut is much more fragile than those cities (and Japanese construction at the time wasn't exactly super-strength either), I would expect a relatively small part of the city to be destroyed.

If there's analysis supporting his conclusion, that's fine, but I want to see it.

[LionKing]

I guess it is better to wait for the probe to come up with results. Rumors are already many and whatever the truth is we need to know it. It is not going to bring back the dead, bu at least put those responsible to punishment and hopefully prevent something similar from happening.

[LionKing]

Local TV according to information about the FBI interrogation: the investigation is going towards the blast being intentional.

Just after a small period of time, and when all port received again goods, another huge fire erupted. What is the answer? Like the first blast..it is because of ironing. Shortly after, the iron building in downtown suddenly catches fire. Why? There was ironing activity
Hizbollah weaponry building in Ain Qana blasts..they surrounded the place and we don't know information

The joke today in Lebanon is asking when is the ironing man going to iron some door in the parliament when they are all in it.

Still waiting for the formal report to come out though. .

[Allan F]

Shifting the blame from the government/city officials towards an external enemy?

[LionKing]

Shifting the blame from the government/city officials towards an external enemy?

The government is still responsible for storing the nitrates all this time in an unsafe way. And they are still corrupt no matter what. But if someone else did it to pressure the gov. We should know. We need to know who killed all those
innocent people..unless the FBI is dealing with the government because they promised them to fix the sea border issue with Israel which is a decision they took formally, and who knows what they promised to take more of decisions.

[LionKing]

And to keep the door open for everything possible, it is possible the second fire in the port and other fires are set by people to take insurance money.
I can't trust FBI completely after all (especially under Trump administration).

[LionKing]

Bu today, one year has passed.
The judge Sawwan wanted some politicians for interrogation. They removed him. The other seemingly more audacious named some politicians and recommended removing their immunity. They started to refer the issue to a known committee that never leads anywhere, and it is known that issues will go nowhere if referred to it.
Meanwhile the economical sitaution reaches unprecedented decline. France and the west sells us words and some aids that are not enough, has been speaking aboit punishments for politicians that lead nowhere.
Worse,Hizbollah says it will bring fuel and medicine from Iran no matter what the government says. China and Russia declined receiving fuel from Iran from sanctions,but no, we have to face everyone ..
Why doesn't the west put enough pressure to form a government so things can start to function well I don't know. I am afraid they want to give the countey to Iran in returns of peace with Israel and fixing the issue of the sea fuel with it.

At any rates, if a government is formwd we will have to deal with 5 difficult years at least as we read before issues start to move smoothly. Such a gloomy future, unless some miracle happens.

[Peter B]

Bu today, one year has passed.
The judge Sawwan wanted some politicians for interrogation. They removed him. The other seemingly more audacious named some politicians and recommended removing their immunity. They started to refer the issue to a known committee that never leads anywhere, and it is known that issues will go nowhere if referred to it.
Meanwhile the economical sitaution reaches unprecedented decline. France and the west sells us words and some aids that are not enough, has been speaking aboit punishments for politicians that lead nowhere.
Worse,Hizbollah says it will bring fuel and medicine from Iran no matter what the government says. China and Russia declined receiving fuel from Iran from sanctions,but no, we have to face everyone ..
Why doesn't the west put enough pressure to form a government so things can start to function well I don't know. I am afraid they want to give the countey to Iran in returns of peace with Israel and fixing the issue of the sea fuel with it.

At any rates, if a government is formwd we will have to deal with 5 difficult years at least as we read before issues start to move smoothly. Such a gloomy future, unless some miracle happens.

You have my sympathy.

I can barely imagine what it must be like to live in a country with such dysfunctional leadership, but this article provides an idea: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-04/lebanons-collapse-continues-one-year-after-beirut-blast/100343112

[LionKing]

Thanks Peter.
In fact, the fuel problem has now led one of the biggest and most important hospitals to declare that by Monday if the fuel is not there 40 adults and 15 children in it will die!!
The UN should interfere instantly.
The government is not formed because of Maerican-Iranian  dispute as is said and won't be formed before they agree in September together.

Meanwhile,I pray no one gets sick in this period.