There was a massive explosion in Beirut about an hour ago.
Footage from the massive explosion in Beirut Port, Lebanon pic.twitter.com/bdvzrS05Qf
— Beirut Today (@bey_today) August 4, 2020
Early reports is that it was a fuel ship.
Twitter User KenDeuel points out the phenomenon of the Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.
(Featured image is the Flag of Lebanon.)
Jaybird
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When I saw the first reports of the explosions, they were from closer to the middle of the city and didn’t see the water.
So I thought it was a nuke. A small one… but a nuke.
I am relieved that it might not have been a nuke.Report
I admit to wondering for a moment why there were so many phones at the ready taking pictures of the explosion.
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Evidently it was a fireworks warehouse at the port, which seems supported by this video: https://twitter.com/AnttiKivivalli/status/1290681595347730432
And yeah, it was already burning before it went kablooey.
Hopefully Oscar will wander into this thread and explain the fluid dynamics aspects of this, because it’s really fascinating. There are a few long distance shots floating around, including one filmed from a boat. It seems the big white spherical-ish cloud is riding on the shockwave, but it dissipates and the shockwave continues. At least that is how it looks to me.Report
Here is some exceptionally good footage from another angle:
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The cloud is just that, a cloud. Take a bunch of air, compress it very quickly, and all the moisture in the air will condense into small droplets for a second before the shockwave accelerates past it and the vapor has a chance to re-expand.
Shockwave dynamics are a blast (pun fully intended)Report
Early reports are, of course, contradicting each other:
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Man, the aftermath videos of that place look almost as bad as Portland or Milwaukee. ^_^
Is it time for the region’s urban centers to discuss zoning laws and why we have them?
And a big thumbs up to the Mossad for inevitably taking the blame for whatever happened.Report
Yes, yes. This explosion demonstrates the need to legalize marijuana too.Report
Stay classy George.Report
First off – Holy Shite! There is your earth shattering Ka-BOOM!
Second – anyone within a, what, 4 block radius, maybe more, is very likely dead or seriously wounded unless they were behind solid shelter. That was a helluva shock wave, the kind that kills you instantly by turning you into jelly.
That second video does suggest some kind of fireworks or munitions (lots of bright flashes in the smoke right before the boom). I first thought it might be electrical arcs (like transformers exploding), but I didn’t see wires or towers.
I’m curious about the red dust you see right before the shockwave.Report
Some sources (The Guardian) are saying 25 dead, 2500 injured. This is pretty bad. Also, it may damage the ability to import necessary supplies….
that said, I’m relieved it was (apparently) a horrible accident rather than a provoking incident.Report
There’s also reporting that they have seized high explosives in there from some military intervention of some kind. That would certainly make the size and intensity of the boom a bit more plausible.Report
Nope.
Unless they had a MOAB in there.Report
If you enjoy goofy Twitter science, we have an estimate of the energy of the explosion: https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/1290733401796947975
The result: 1.7 ktons.
So what exactly was in that warehouse?Report
My guess, there was a pressurized tank of something buried under ground. See all that red dust right before the shockwave?, that was the explosion that punctured the tank. High pressure gas blows up all the dust, then the fire ignites the gas, and WHOMP!
Now if there were munitions in that warehouse, and they were cooking off, I could see that puncturing the tank. But unless they had a MOAB in there, there are no conventional munitions that can do that.Report
Twitter is suggesting that there was a seized shipment of ammonium nitrate: https://twitter.com/HachemYassin/status/1290702640930791424 . The numbers seem plausible, although, from my rather cursory research, it appears rather difficult to get ammonium nitrate to explode, without mixing it with fuel or something.Report
It’s pretty hard to get AN to explode without using a pretty descent detonator, such as an exploding fireworks factory or ammo depot. Most of what detonated is indicated by the giant red cloud, which is probably NO2.Report
That looks like dust, not gasReport
Here’s a story about a regular mine blast which caused a similar orange cloud, which explains how a fuel-starved AN explosion creates them.
Nitrogen dioxide from mine blast causes orange cloud.
Note that there was a huge gray cloud prior to the major detonation. The red cloud was the part that went straight up.Report
OK, that makes sense, especially if there was AN in there. The grey cloud is just ash, but the red cloud is AN burning poorly with some kind of hydrocarbon (what are the chances there was bunker fuel nearby?), and then it suddenly had a good enough ANFO mix to give us the WHOMP!Report
Pure AN can also detonate, but it takes a bigger kick and the fuel-starved reaction isn’t as powerful. As an aside, mixing AN with nitro-methane (used by race cars and two-stroke model airplanes) is about twice as powerful as AN with fuel oil.
Anyway, here’s a 1966 government study of why and how ammonium nitrate explodes during transport or in storage, because when it does happen, it’s very bad.
Explosion Hazards of Ammonium Nitrate Under Fire Exposure
It has lots of charts, graphs, and tables.
From the summary.
In 1921 an explosion at the Haber-Bosch plant in Oppau Germany killed over 500 workers. Bosch was left distraught by it, in part because they didn’t think it could happen until it did.Report
Seems it’s happened here as well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disasterReport
As for what was in the tank? LNG, LP?Report
LNG or LP don’t explode that way without a well-mixed oxidizer.Report
Like NO?Report
We have seismic readings: https://twitter.com/nktpnd/status/1290724023375220736?s=19
Ranges of 3.5M to 4.5M, which someone in that thread claims matches a 2 kton blast.Report
Footage from a car crossing a bridge.
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Damn those windows shattered as if they were nothing.Report
Apparently people are reading this and saying “Holy $#!+”
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Mistakes were made.
I’m uncomfortable with the desire to punish after events like these. I feel like, these kinds of fuckups are about systems, not individuals. Figure out why the system failed. Then fix the system.
I worry the desire to find scapegoats, even if they indeed share culpability, distract from systemic issues.
At my job, when there is a fuckup, provided there was no malice, we don’t go after individuals. We examine systems. In fact, the main role of culpable individuals is to explain how better systems could have helped. You get better answers when they don’t fear punishment.Report
I thought “surely this isn’t a Dark Universe Gomer Pyle” thing…
But then…
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There is also the very real possibility that the AN doesn’t belong to anyone. Shipping companies go out of business all the time, and their cargoes get warehoused while the company’s assets are litigated by creditors. Whoever owned it may be dead, or have no legal claim to it.Report
Mistakes were made.
I initially thought you were being sarcastic. I mean, isn’t this overused blame-shift one of the main reasons everyone is so cynical about politics and government?Report
Well yes, I was being sarcastic when I said “mistakes were made.” The rest of the post, however, was earnest.
They may find some set of individuals who clearly screwed up. More likely, however, is that this was a systems failure, with many individuals each screwing up in small ways. The temptation will be to find a relatively powerless individual and punish them. This will give the public a desired sense of revenge. However, doing this doesn’t actually fix anything. It doesn’t make these kinds of disasters less likely.
There does seem to be a document trail, if Twitter is to be believed. I expect everyone in that document chain was making a reasonable effort to manage the port. However, I expect each person had other priorities. Thus it was easy to kick the can down the road.Report
Mistakes were made.
I initially thought you were being sarcastic. Isn’t this overused blame-shift one of the main reasons everyone is so cynical about politics and government?Report
The entire thing seems to have been a really big accident rather than military action or a terrorist attack. Something caused stored fireworks to explode, which resulted in a chain reaction of explosions.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-involvement-in-massive-beirut-blast-ruled-out-by-both-sides/?fbclid=IwAR2DWukNi2y6ZB5QSCgDUx1kK6PRiTIoMf9TXNyqdWSxkYgXY2z-DHuPULsReport
I know it’s the NYT and paywall, yadda yadda, but the before & after of the port is just…
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/world/middleeast/beirut-lebanon-explosion.htmlReport
A thread placing the explosion and its various radii in other cities.
Someone on Twitter pointed out that the New York City one had 15 million people in it.
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