Beirut: Any physics nerds in here? | INFJ Forum

Beirut: Any physics nerds in here?

There was 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate on site and that is what detonated, there are other instances of similar explosions elsewhere due to poor storage conditions with West Texas being another example. So what likely happen a very typical fire started with something else more than likely as a result of neglect for which had spread to the nitrate. The nitrate was confiscated from a ship back in 2014 from what is posted online and obviously should have been stored somewhere else as it is never safe to have so much in a populated area.
 
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My God those poor people. What a disaster. Hard to even imagine the suffering happening right now and to come. It blasted out their grain stores. Fuck.
 
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It is unbelievable that ammonium nitrate is repeatedly the cause of devastating explosions.
Normally it is even quite harmless. You can melt it if you heat it slowly. But if it is exposed to a sudden heating or maybe even a blow, it will detonate.
We have known for a very long time that it is so dangerous, and yet it is stored in huge quantities in the ports.
I'm just gonna go ahead and say that your town also has a lot of them.
In China, too, it is said to have been NH4NO3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Tianjin_explosions
The problem with this substance is that on the one hand it is used as an explosive in mining and on the other hand it is a good fertiliser. It is also very popular among terrorists because you can simply buy it.
 
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Before vs After. To help in viewing: note the before is a warped google earth view, we're looking straight down at the grain silo.
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Lebanon acknowledged that this chemical was stored in massive quantities at that location since 2014.

So sad when authorities choose to overlook danger because something is convenient. When I worked with the DOT safety & security division this was a common struggle. They'd over-research the danger, and then prescribe the bare minimum to make something "safe".
 
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Well now they have blown up their capital and destroyed their city- so hopefully everyone else with giant pots of bullshit laying around will get their act together.
 
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