| Beirut - massive explosion there 17:02 - Aug 4 with 8937 views | Steve_M |
Looks grim.
Possibly fireworks that have exploded. |  |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:28 - Aug 5 with 1699 views | Guthrum |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 22:27 - Aug 4 by WeWereZombies |
From the latest update on the BBC website:
'Officials are blaming highly explosive materials stored in a warehouse for six years.
President Michel Aoun tweeted it was "unacceptable" that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored unsafely.' |
Raw materials for many fertilisers, but, unfortunately, also very explosive. |  |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:49 - Aug 5 with 1676 views | StokieBlue |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:28 - Aug 5 by Guthrum |
Raw materials for many fertilisers, but, unfortunately, also very explosive. |
Surely a more distributed storage system is sensible though, or if you're going to store than much together it should be out of town.
I understand that makes logistics harder but having that much explosive material in a city is asking for trouble.
Not the uncommon though, it's probably the case in most port cities and other larger ones. There even used to be a nuclear reactor in central London.
SB |  |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:57 - Aug 5 with 1649 views | giant_stow |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:49 - Aug 5 by StokieBlue |
Surely a more distributed storage system is sensible though, or if you're going to store than much together it should be out of town.
I understand that makes logistics harder but having that much explosive material in a city is asking for trouble.
Not the uncommon though, it's probably the case in most port cities and other larger ones. There even used to be a nuclear reactor in central London.
SB |
A nuclear reactor in London?! Where was it? |  |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 09:03 - Aug 5 with 1633 views | Guthrum |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:49 - Aug 5 by StokieBlue |
Surely a more distributed storage system is sensible though, or if you're going to store than much together it should be out of town.
I understand that makes logistics harder but having that much explosive material in a city is asking for trouble.
Not the uncommon though, it's probably the case in most port cities and other larger ones. There even used to be a nuclear reactor in central London.
SB |
Indeed. But rather than deliberate policy, this appears to have been a dubious cargo siezed from a merchant ship then just stuck in a dockside warehouse for years with nobody getting round to doing anything about it (despite warnings of the danger). | |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 09:05 - Aug 5 with 1623 views | Guthrum |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:57 - Aug 5 by giant_stow |
A nuclear reactor in London?! Where was it? |
Queen Mary College, University of London, down Mile End Road. Also a naval one at Greenwich. | |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 09:16 - Aug 5 with 1610 views | BloomBlue |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:28 - Aug 5 by Guthrum |
Raw materials for many fertilisers, but, unfortunately, also very explosive. |
Look at the IRA Canary Warf London bombing and the damage that did using ammonium nitrate fertilizer and sugar and that was 500 kg the reports are saying this was 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate |  | | |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 09:48 - Aug 5 with 1570 views | giant_stow |
cheers chaps - will read over lunch | |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 11:01 - Aug 5 with 1517 views | WeWereZombies |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 08:49 - Aug 5 by StokieBlue |
Surely a more distributed storage system is sensible though, or if you're going to store than much together it should be out of town.
I understand that makes logistics harder but having that much explosive material in a city is asking for trouble.
Not the uncommon though, it's probably the case in most port cities and other larger ones. There even used to be a nuclear reactor in central London.
SB |
Inevitably Wikipedia has a page listing the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions
Dominic Cummings blasé attitude and more in 1911 when the village of Pleasant Prairie was levelled: 'A DuPont spokesman was reported on as being perplexed by the coverage of the blast, quoted as saying "explosions occur every day in steel mills, flouring mills and grain elevators with hardly a line in the paper.'
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 11:02 - Aug 5 with 1513 views | Darth_Koont |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 18:45 - Aug 4 by BlueBadger |
Seeing loons claiming to have seen Israeli jets in the area already.
F*ck humanity, let's nuke the planet from orbit and let the cockroaches take over. |
Indeed. Awful tragedy and immediately people were looking for the "real story".
Many, many people are dead and injured in a country that's already struggling to cope as it is. Those are the facts at this stage - and ultimately what is most important. But I'm not even surprised anymore that the BBC was peddling their hot take on it.
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 11:13 - Aug 5 with 1495 views | StokieBlue |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 11:01 - Aug 5 by WeWereZombies |
Inevitably Wikipedia has a page listing the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions
Dominic Cummings blasé attitude and more in 1911 when the village of Pleasant Prairie was levelled: 'A DuPont spokesman was reported on as being perplexed by the coverage of the blast, quoted as saying "explosions occur every day in steel mills, flouring mills and grain elevators with hardly a line in the paper.'
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Ridiculous comment although DuPont haven't really changed their attitudes much in 100 years.
Estimates of the explosion are around 1KT which would put it at 1/15th that of the Hiroshima bomb or 1/15000th of the weapons deployed nowadays. Really shows the monstrous scale of modern nukes.
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 13:00 - Aug 5 with 1434 views | Guthrum |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 11:13 - Aug 5 by StokieBlue |
Ridiculous comment although DuPont haven't really changed their attitudes much in 100 years.
Estimates of the explosion are around 1KT which would put it at 1/15th that of the Hiroshima bomb or 1/15000th of the weapons deployed nowadays. Really shows the monstrous scale of modern nukes.
SB |
In fact, as the accuracy of delivery systems increased since the 1960s, the size of nuclear warheads has come down significantly. Most now have variable yields in the 100kT to 500kT range, some smaller than that (down to fractions of a kiloton). It makes them lighter, cheaper and several can be fitted on a single missile. Strategy is now about destroying (perhaps hardened) high-value targets, rather than wiping out entire cities.
Huge, multi-megaton devices are simply not needed any more. | |
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| Beirut - massive explosion there on 14:24 - Aug 5 with 1384 views | StokieBlue |
| Beirut - massive explosion there on 13:00 - Aug 5 by Guthrum |
In fact, as the accuracy of delivery systems increased since the 1960s, the size of nuclear warheads has come down significantly. Most now have variable yields in the 100kT to 500kT range, some smaller than that (down to fractions of a kiloton). It makes them lighter, cheaper and several can be fitted on a single missile. Strategy is now about destroying (perhaps hardened) high-value targets, rather than wiping out entire cities.
Huge, multi-megaton devices are simply not needed any more. |
You are correct, it was used for scale with regards to the explosion.
However MIRV missiles still deliver multi MT yields over smallish areas. Trident missiles can have 8x500Mt which might easily be directed towards a single city.
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