Lebanese Blast

My condolences of sadness goes out to all the Lebanese people that were killed or injured in the blast that occurred in Beirut yesterday. Sadly we lost one Australian in that blast as well. My prays and thoughts goes to his family as well. A sad day for the people of Lebanon and to those who are now living in Australia that still have family and friends living over there.
wombat

That was a horrific incident. Very sad for the Lebanese people.

Regards Axtyr.

Some are suggesting that fire crackers may have been the trigger.
If some dipstick tossed a cracker or three into the chem storage then they had a death wish or did not have a clue as to how big the explosion would be.
The huge water vapour/steam cloud is a sure indicator that ammonium nitrate was involved.

Ammonium nitrate has to heated up a bit before it will explode. That might explain the initial blast that people mentioned, creating the necessary heat and then igniting the nitrate. It would take more than a cracker or two to do that. So who knows, it might have been deliberate.

apart what happened on this day in 1945 that was the biggest explosion i've seen,truly tragic 



cheers    moredeep

Unfortunate & very sad for the loss of life indeed, but to have so many tons of volatile explosive substance, stored in the heart of a major populated city, is something I cannot comprehend.

Kon.

Ammonium nitrate cannot self ignite it has to have a trigger and it has to be hot.
We have some fairly large storage of this stuff in Australia but it is stored correctly
Check out the Newcastle storage.

It is my understanding ammonia nitrate must be mixed with deisel fuel before it will explode. Then it requires a powerful detonator. But my knowledge of explosives is limited.

Thousands of tonnes of AN travel our highways and byways every day, either to mine sites or farming regions.
Mr & Mrs Suburbia can go to their local Bunnings and bring home a bag for their garden.

**Did you know if you run out of ice, or drinks fridge packs up when fishing or camping, throw a kilo or two in your esky, add your cans/stubbies + water and instant coldies.**

https://www.livescience.com/6413-fertilizer-bombs-work.html

https://theconversation.com/what-is-ammonium-nitrate-the-chemical-that-exploded-in-beirut-143979

At high enough temperatures, ammonium nitrate can violently decompose on its own. This process creates gases including nitrogen oxides and water vapour. It is this rapid release of gases that causes an explosion.

adrian ss wrote:

At high enough temperatures, ammonium nitrate can violently decompose on its own. This process creates gases including nitrogen oxides and water vapour. It is this rapid release of gases that causes an explosion.

Forget the "doom and gloom" Adrian, enjoy a chilled beer.
What a sad world we have?

1947 Texas explosion was the largest using ammonium nitrate and cascaded to several mor ship explosion

Link............... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

this one was also massive
  

cheers   moredeep

Ammonium Nitrate is normally hard to ignite although certain things (like oil) will cause it to explode.  There's a MASSIVE Ammonium Nitrate deposit in storage at Newcastle (NSW) with FOUR TIMES the quantity of the same material that exploded in Lebanon - and the "island" is nestled within less than a kilometer of residential areas.  An explosion there would be nothing short of monstrous... making the one in Beirut look 'harmless' by comparison.  There's also no solid concrete buildings nearby capable of shielding the blast like the one in Beirut.  The unconstrained shock-wave would consume everything.  

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/fears-for-nsw-residents-living-near-ammonium-stockpiles-after-beirut-blast/news-story/8ea2da81960b16a59fcdeff81a67ac01

Nightjar wrote:

adrian ss wrote:

At high enough temperatures, ammonium nitrate can violently decompose on its own. This process creates gases including nitrogen oxides and water vapour. It is this rapid release of gases that causes an explosion.

Forget the "doom and gloom" Adrian, enjoy a chilled beer.
What a sad world we have?

Agreed.

nero_design wrote:
Ammonium Nitrate is normally hard to ignite although certain things (like oil) will cause it to explode.  There's a MASSIVE Ammonium Nitrate deposit in storage at Newcastle (NSW) with FOUR TIMES the quantity of the same material that exploded in Lebanon - and the "island" is nestled within less than a kilometer of residential areas.  An explosion there would be nothing short of monstrous... making the one in Beirut look 'harmless' by comparison.  There's also no solid concrete buildings nearby capable of shielding the blast like the one in Beirut.  The unconstrained shock-wave would consume everything.  

That's it ban production of Ammonium Nitrate? (Will give the Greenies & others something to protest.) They probably don't even know it is also a fertiliser.
CSBP produces a mere 700,000+ tonnes/year against world wide production of 21,000,000+ tonnes.


https://www.csbp.com.au/products/AAN/ammonium-nitrate

Mines use it for blasting ... as Nitropril by the mega tonnes

I was more of a "jelly man " but I have used Nitropril for opal mining . Nitropril was in more use later as it was much cheaper . More bang for the buck !

davsgold wrote:Farmers also use it by the mega tonnes as Urea for crops, Urea = Nitrogen = makes crops grow

Yes Dave, Farmers do use Urea and Ammonium nitrate however two entirely different chemical compounds.
Molecular formula of Urea is: CH4N2O and Molecular formula of Ammonium Nitrate is: (NH4)(NO3) or N2H4O3.
Similar but not the same.