Massive blast in Beirut

He means above the red circle, the two smudge lines in the water could well be the ship from the before pic. The image you linked doesn't show that area, just the crater.

Yeah I was just saying possibly that is what remains of it - but it doesn't appear to be in the crater as the second overhead image possibly suggested.
 
Yeah I was just saying possibly that is what remains of it - but it doesn't appear to be in the crater as the second overhead image possibly suggested.
I did a very slow edit to say it looks like I'm wrong anyway, other pics show the ship to have been moved by the blast by the looks of things.

https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/i4533m/the_crater_of_the_port_of_beirut/
https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/i44fac/aftermath_of_explosion_crater_estimated_at_1000/
 
Yeah I was just saying possibly that is what remains of it - but it doesn't appear to be in the crater as the second overhead image possibly suggested.
The boat appears to be sitting on the dock where some of the warehouses were before, video on the BBC front page at the top shows it as it pans out.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news

Edit: Post above has a better shot of it.

Also shows the protection the grain silo offered to the buildings to the rear of it compared to those directly in it's path.
 
He means above the red circle, the two smudge lines in the water could well be the ship from the before pic. The image you linked doesn't show that area, just the crater.

E: Having said that, there are some other pics which show a ship on dry land afterwards so maybe it got moved in the blast?

https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/i4533m/the_crater_of_the_port_of_beirut/
https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/i44fac/aftermath_of_explosion_crater_estimated_at_1000/

holy crap you're right! I thought that smudge was the outline of a sunken ship but it's been blown clear out of the water!
 
Yeah it is a good match for that smaller ship and at the best of times an odd place to be never mind the proximity to where the warehouse was before.
 
The MOD do have huge warehouses full of Ammonium Nitrate but at least they do tend to be away from populated areas if they go bang!
Yeah, but they also have a fair few nuclear weapons stored only a few hundred yards from my house. If any of those go bang, the Thames Valley is going to be somewhat deeper.... Hopefully I'll be on another site when it does, as the computer game they make of it will probably be quite awesome!
 
A team of specialists at the University of Sheffield estimates that it had the force of 1,000-1,500 tonnes of TNT – roughly equivalent to one-tenth of the explosive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

I guess it puts in perspective the destructive power of a nuclear bomb
 
don't forget that a nuclear bomb is designed to sky blast above the target to maximise the blast radius and reduce any shielding at ground level. This explosion (note I don't think it was a bomb) went off at ground level and still did crazy damage

edited for clarity lest people think I'm in on the CT bandwagon.
 
Last edited:
Storage will be slightly better though too, not quite just "chuck thousands of tonnes in to a shed and hope for the best".

Each site, individual building or storage area will have a licence. Strict limits will be in place governing the type and quantity of explosives that can be stored based on location, building construction etc.
 
don't forget that a nuclear bomb is designed to sky blast above the target to maximise the blast radius and reduce any shielding at ground level. This one went off at ground level and still did crazy damage

I'm surprised if they put the force that high - Tianjin (which was about 1/3rd the amount of ammonium nitrate) was ~336 ton of TNT equivalent producing 21.9 ton TNT equivalent main blast and 2.9mag quake - compared to 3.3mag quake in this one (which is around 2.5x stronger seismically).

Generally the force from the main blast of previous explosions around this scale has been in the 10s of tons of TNT equivalent.
 
I'm surprised if they put the force that high - Tianjin (which was about 1/3rd the amount of ammonium nitrate) was ~336 ton of TNT equivalent producing 21.9 ton TNT equivalent main blast and 2.9mag quake - compared to 3.3mag quake in this one (which is around 2.5x stronger seismically).

Generally the force from the main blast of previous explosions around this scale has been in the 10s of tons of TNT equivalent.
The TNT equivalent range will be based on the relative effectiveness for AN and possibly a proportion of ANFO so a range from 0.4ish to 0.7ish. Quake strength isn't a good guide to explosive force as it relies to much on geology to be meaningfull.
 
Less than 1% of current nukes destructive ability.

In fairness he did say tactical not strategic. Tactical are the mini ones that were being developed so commanders in the field could fire them from tanks and artillery. They were the ones banned by the non-profileration treaty until a certain president decided to pull out of it. The previous presidents agreed it might not be wise to place the nuke decision further down the line of command and the current ones have overruled this. Great...
 
In fairness he did say tactical not strategic. Tactical are the mini ones that were being developed so commanders in the field could fire them from tanks and artillery. They were the ones banned by the non-profileration treaty until a certain president decided to pull out of it. The previous presidents agreed it might not be wise to place the nuke decision further down the line of command and the current ones have overruled this. Great...

To be fair, it's pointless pretending that international law means anything to nuclear powers, any agreement is only as strong as the inequality the parties involved.
 
Back
Top Bottom