I was wondering how powerful the Beirut explosion was relative to small nuclear weapon. About the same.

https://www.statista.com/chart/22495/estimated-kiloton-yield-of-selected-explosions-weapons/

At least 137 people were killed while a further 5,000 were injured when 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in a blast that was reportedly felt as far away as Cyprus. It quickly came clear from initial videos of the incident that this was no ordinary explosion and the damage it caused to the port is catastrophic. Just how powerful was it?

Using videos and photographs that emerged in the aftermath of the incident, a team from the University of Sheffield estimated the strength of the explosion to be around 1.5 kilotons in TNT equivalent. That would make it one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history at around one tenth the strength of the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese City of Hiroshima. It is far more powerful than any conventional military weapon.

The GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (also known as “the mother of all bombs) is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in military use. Designed to be dropped from a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, its kiloton yield is 0.011 by comparison.

North Korea’s first nuclear test was between 0.7 and 2 kT.

The W25 was a small nuclear warhead developed by the United States Air Force and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for air-defence use. It was a fission bomb with a nominal yield of 1.5 kt.

The Halifax Explosion was a disaster that occurred in Nova Scotia on 6 December 1917. A French cargo ship laden with high explosives, collided with a Norwegian vessel. A fire on board the French ship ignited her cargo, causing a massive explosion that devastated the Richmond district of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. Estimated yield 2.9 kT.

On 12 August 2015, a series of explosions killed 173 people at a container storage station at the Port of Tianjin, China. An explosion involved the detonation of about 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (approx. 256 tonnes TNT equivalent).

“Using videos and photographs that emerged in the aftermath of the incident, a team from the University of Sheffield estimated the strength of the explosion to be around 1.5 kilotons in TNT equivalent.”

1.5 kilotons in to Nukemap gives a fireball roughly the correct size also. Big baddaboom!

I was just thinking, military explosives and commercial explosives are different ( to my knowledge).

I wonder if the Kt equivalents are actually equivalent

1 tonne of military explosive and one tonne of ammonium nitrate and diesel going off might yield different kinds of damage / more damage.

Military explosives burn faster creating a faster wave , commercial explosives for mining etc burn slower to create a slower wave.

The Australian government released a treasure trove of ideas recently, Dreyfuss ( that was his name) outlined a whole host of lists and do not mix warnings. I suppose you could experiment, patiently grinding down powders by hand night after night, concentrating commonly sourced liquids. Did you hear that? DID YOU HEAR THAT MOTHER ? !

esselte said:

“Using videos and photographs that emerged in the aftermath of the incident, a team from the University of Sheffield estimated the strength of the explosion to be around 1.5 kilotons in TNT equivalent.”

1.5 kilotons in to Nukemap gives a fireball roughly the correct size also. Big baddaboom!

Thats Mr Badda-bing, Badda-boom to you

wookiemeister said:

esselte said:

“Using videos and photographs that emerged in the aftermath of the incident, a team from the University of Sheffield estimated the strength of the explosion to be around 1.5 kilotons in TNT equivalent.”

1.5 kilotons in to Nukemap gives a fireball roughly the correct size also. Big baddaboom!

Thats Mr Badda-bing, Badda-boom to you

Is that badder than old King Kong?

when will people learn that powerful explosives should only be used for good like playing amusing pranks?

wookiemeister said:

when will people learn that powerful explosives should only be used for good like playing amusing pranks?

I used to use nitroglycerine in my cracker gun.

wookiemeister said:

I was just thinking, military explosives and commercial explosives are different ( to my knowledge).

I wonder if the Kt equivalents are actually equivalent

1 tonne of military explosive and one tonne of ammonium nitrate and diesel going off might yield different kinds of damage / more damage.

Military explosives burn faster creating a faster wave , commercial explosives for mining etc burn slower to create a slower wave.

The Australian government released a treasure trove of ideas recently, Dreyfuss ( that was his name) outlined a whole host of lists and do not mix warnings. I suppose you could experiment, patiently grinding down powders by hand night after night, concentrating commonly sourced liquids. Did you hear that? DID YOU HEAR THAT MOTHER ? !

TNT equivalent

TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be 4.184 gigajoules, which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a metric ton (1,000 kilograms) of TNT. In other words, for each gram of TNT exploded, 4184 joules (or one large Calorie = 1,000 calories) of energy is released.

This convention intends to compare the destructiveness of an event with that of traditional explosive materials, of which TNT is a typical example, although other conventional explosives such as dynamite contain more energy….

Tamb said:

wookiemeister said:

esselte said:

“Using videos and photographs that emerged in the aftermath of the incident, a team from the University of Sheffield estimated the strength of the explosion to be around 1.5 kilotons in TNT equivalent.”

1.5 kilotons in to Nukemap gives a fireball roughly the correct size also. Big baddaboom!

Thats Mr Badda-bing, Badda-boom to you

Is that badder than old King Kong?

I’m not familiar with that brand of volatile explosive.

I’m an acetone and peroxide man myself

Last week they were saying Beirut was somewhere around the 0.3 – 0.5 kiloton range. 1.6 is a significant increase on that.

What are the best videos of the explosion?

I hope that everybody has learnt their lesson from Beruit 2020 and Tianjen 2015.

Don’t store large amounts of ammonium nitrate in ports. Ever.

mollwollfumble said:

What are the best videos of the explosion?

I hope that everybody has learnt their lesson from Beruit 2020 and Tianjen 2015.

Don’t store large amounts of ammonium nitrate in ports. Ever.

Large amounts of fertiliser are stored in ports all over the world without incident. As long as it is handled correctly, there are no issues.

As for videos, this video shows the lead-up to the explosion pretty well.

https://youtu.be/uuduBHY_8Eo

mollwollfumble said:

What are the best videos of the explosion?

I hope that everybody has learnt their lesson from Beruit 2020 and Tianjen 2015.

Don’t store large amounts of ammonium nitrate in ports. Ever.

Don’t move to Newcastle then.