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Ammonium nitrate: what is the chemical blamed for blast in Lebanese capital?
The likely cause of the huge blast in Beirut on Tuesday appears to have been the highly reactive chemical ammonium nitrate.
Lebanon's prime minister, Hassan Diab, said 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded after lying unsecured in a warehouse for six years, tallying with reports that a ship carrying a similar quantity of the chemical had unloaded its cargo at the port in 2013. It remains unclear what caused the chemical to ignite.
AFP is quoting the governor of Beirut, Marwan Abboud, as saying the damage from the port blast has extended over half of the city, with the cost of damage likely above $3bn.
He has also upped his previous estimate of the number of "homeless" to 300,000, which is close to the total population of the central part of the capital. Again, we are not sure if he is talking about homelessness or people whose homes have been damaged.
As Death Toll Rises After Deadly Blast, a Search for Answers and Survivors: Live Updates
As Death Toll Rises After Deadly Blast, a Search for Answers and Survivors: Live Updates:
- Search is on for survivors after blast kills more than 100.
- Some 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes. But amid the devastation, stories of heroism.
- The science behind the blast: Why fertilizer packs a punch.
- Even as hospitals were destroyed and staffers killed, doctors and nurses raced to help.
- I was bloodied and dazed. Beirut strangers treated me like a friend.
- In maps: A two-mile radius around the blast was flattened.
- Beirut's landmark downtown is in shambles. Again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @01:20PM (12 children)
https://twitter.com/AhA47024592/status/1290984736190537729 [twitter.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 05 2020, @01:26PM (11 children)
I'm going to assume that second photo was taken during the fire and before the explosion. Is the photographer even alive?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:02PM (5 children)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeqE6zpWkAYSqrY?format=jpg&name=large [twimg.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:33PM (2 children)
It looks like that taller building in the center may have prevented the blast wave from being even worse.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 05 2020, @03:15PM
Little Boy detonated at 580 meters above Hiroshima, Fat Man at ~503 meters above Nagasaki, but off-target:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki [wikipedia.org]
The ground location of the Beirut explosion limited the damage somewhat, and that tall building next to the warehouse could have prevented hundreds of additional deaths by soaking up a lot of the energy.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 05 2020, @07:48PM
https://streamable.com/zykkj6 [streamable.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:33PM (1 child)
Doesn't that image look odd? Or the ! marker looks out of place, shouldn't it be across the road on the other building, the one that is a big crater in the left most image. Something in that building across the road sure did go boom to leave the crater and rip a large section of the docks with it. The rest of them just look like they got blown away by the shockwave.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:42PM
The ! marker is just in the wrong place. Not uncommon with mapping applications. It should be on the building to the left [twitter.com], where the crater is.
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(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday August 05 2020, @05:00PM (3 children)
In the post-explosion photo, the doors are closed. I'm guessing that the pre-explosion photos were taken well before, so the photos supply no evidence that the subjects or the photographer were in our out of the blast zone.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @05:20PM (2 children)
There was also a video of the big boom from someone standing across the street. I didn't post the link because it's NSFW. No way that guy survived the shock wave.
(Score: 1) by gmby on Wednesday August 05 2020, @07:48PM (1 child)
Not all of us are at work. Post the link with NSFW on it.
Bye
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday August 06 2020, @09:14AM
maybe he meant "not safe if you don't want to suffer from post traumatic stres disorder afterwards", or NSIYDWTSFPTSDA
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 05 2020, @11:15PM