Spirit of Light
Be who ever you want
Hope research will give the answer. It's bad no matter who was behind it.
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Major explosion in Beirut
- Thread starter ChristineM
- Start date
Ammonium nitrate is a very powerful explosive. I have seen it used in small amounts to demolish old stone built farm buildings and reshape land.
Mixed in the correct proportion with a very small amount of a another substance it is the most powerful explosive that comes second only to a nuke in power.
I am not sure anyone was behind it. The warehouse that is claimed to be where the blast originated has been subject to investigation and warnings for over 6 years. But who knows, only time will tell
The death toll has risen to 73 with 3700 injured
amorphous_constellation
Well-Known Member
I listened to the sam harris podcast #210 which he made free in full, and I believe the guest said that today's 'tactical nukes' might be comparable with the early nukes in power .. So if that it is the case, then no this probably wouldn't be one, as a tactical nuke would be more devastating.
This is clearly a conventional explosion, although a large one. A nuke, even a small one, will have a characteristic flash that this did not have.
Ammonium nitrate has a yield about 3/4 that of TNT. If this was 2800 tons, that would correspond to a 2100 ton TNT explosion. There are certainly nukes that go that low, but there would be no good reason to use them in this case (too many international consequences).
Tactical nukes can go as low as 72 tons of TNT equivalent. But, for comparison, the nukes that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15-20,000 tons TNT equivalent. By today's standards, those are small nukes with a standard ICBM a hundred times as powerful.
This was an amazing shock wave, though.
Ammonium nitrate has a yield about 3/4 that of TNT. If this was 2800 tons, that would correspond to a 2100 ton TNT explosion. There are certainly nukes that go that low, but there would be no good reason to use them in this case (too many international consequences).
Tactical nukes can go as low as 72 tons of TNT equivalent. But, for comparison, the nukes that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 15-20,000 tons TNT equivalent. By today's standards, those are small nukes with a standard ICBM a hundred times as powerful.
This was an amazing shock wave, though.
amorphous_constellation
Well-Known Member
Why would any nuke need to be that powerful.. what is the tactical explanation they have for the ability to turn so many square miles into nothing?
Once again, a tactical nuke can be fairly small, down to about 72 tons of TNT equivalent. But this explosion is clearly NOT a nuke. It doesn't have the characteristic flash of a nuke, and the initial explosion in the video goes up in a way that would simply not happen in a nuke.
It was a conventional explosion, but a HUGE one. The largest conventional bomb in the US arsenal, the MOAB, had a yield of 11 tons of TNT equivalent.
By comparison, the explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Dec 6, 1917 was about 3000 tons of TNT equivalent, about 50% more than this Beruit explosion.
I saw one estimate that this was 'only' a 240 ton TNT equivalent. That would suggest that only 1/8 of the NH4NO3 actually exploded.
Well, the Israel-Lebanon border has been tense for ages now, but especially as of late, including terrorists attempting to bomb an IDF vehicle just last week.
Israel has also offered aid to Lebanon and has requested they look past current hostilities in light of the situation.
Once again, this has every indication of being an accident. Given the fire prior to the big explosion (which is why everyone was able to record the big one), it being at a plant with ammonium nitrate would almost guarantee a nasty explosion.
Did it scare the person holding the camera or knock him down? It seemed to me like he was knocked down.
Israeli planes flying over Beirut before the explosion, trump says it was bombed, read all about it;
A massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate blew up in the Beirut explosion. Here's what else we know
A massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate blew up in the Beirut explosion. Here's what else we know
Looks like a fire involving fireworks ignited the ammonium nitrate, and the building seen perhaps lessened the impact of the explosion - at least in that direction. Horrible though - and stupid to store such large amounts without proper explosive precautions, and well away from inhabitants. 
To me it seemed like an instinct to duck and cover.
Ahh, Trump, i will wait and see what investigators on the scene discover, not what an orange buffoon on the other side of the world dreams
You are correct but craters can be revealing, and a forensic investigation, quite possibly with international technicians and observers will come soon enough. Answers are wanted, and trump making idiotic inflammatory comments won't help
Altfish
Veteran Member
It's used in fertilizers, as a kid we used to mix fertilizer (or was it weedkiller) with sugar - they made dangerous explosives.