Huge Explosion in Beirut

[Ploughman]

Indeed. The wider area in which I live (Teesside) has several chemical plants that once made up ICI and a nuclear power plant this side of Hartlepool. There's even a small chemical plant right next to the railway line as you come from Saltburn / Nunthorpe lines into Middlesbrough station. Goodness knows where there are underground pipes & storage areas that are linked to the old docks and what's in them. I've long considered the possibility that if the right places were bombed / hit then the possible chain reactions could be horrendous round here.

Think of a WW2 Ammunition ship straight opposite a Refinery.
i reckon that might cause a little bit of damage.

 

[eMeS]

Think of a WW2 Ammunition ship ...

There's one sunk in the Thames estuary.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Wow. Wikipedia gives the detonation velocity of ammonium nitrate as 2500 m/s

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Wow. Wikipedia gives the detonation velocity of ammonium nitrate as 2500 m/s

Which in layman's terms, means what exactly? (N.B. Certainly looks like a big figure!)

 

[GRALISTAIR]

(N.B. Certainly looks like a big figure!)

Not really - quite a few bigger - wiki page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_explosive_detonation_velocities

 

[High Dyke]

Which in layman's terms, means what exactly? (N.B. Certainly looks like a big figure!)

A very big bang!

 

[Crossover]

Which in layman's terms, means what exactly? (N.B. Certainly looks like a big figure!)

The speed of sound is around 343 m/s in air, for some comparison

 

[Bald Rick]

At least when the Hemel Hempstead oil tanks burnt, they were away from housing.

But close enough. I was 6 miles away and the whole house shook.

Very bizarrely, as I was typing that there was a fairly large explosion outside my house now!

 

[zuriblue]

Reminds me of warehouse explosions at the Chinese port of Tianjin in 2015. The largest blast there was from 800t of stored ammonium nitrate rather than the enormous 2750t claimed here. In China there was also much secondary contamination from other materials stored nearby.

Also the 1947 Texas city disaster which is the worst industrial disaster in US history.

That was Ammonium Nitrate as well.

Texas City disaster - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[AM9]

At least when the Hemel Hempstead oil tanks burnt, they were away from housing.

The Buncefield explosion, (it was a petroleum vapour explosion that cause the widespread damage), cause many injuries in homes up to a mile away from the source. The oil terminal is located alongside a large industrial/business estate and many of the large buildings were completely destroyed. The explosion happened at 06:01 on a Sunday morning. Had the event happened on a weekday, - maybe at 09:00, the probably have been casualties in three figures. The "oil tanks burning" was the ensuing fire that lasted for over 4 days. That was the largest explosion since Flixborough in 1974 and the whole event, the largest in peacetime Europe.

 

[eMeS]

The Buncefield explosion, (it was a petroleum vapour explosion that cause the widespread damage), cause many injuries in homes up to a mile away from the source. The oil terminal is located alongside a large industrial/business estate and many of the large buildings were completely destroyed. The explosion happened at 06:01 on a Sunday morning. Had the event happened on a weekday, - maybe at 09:00, the probably have been casualties in three figures. The "oil tanks burning" was the ensuing fire that lasted for over 4 days. That was the largest explosion since Flixborough in 1974 and the whole event, the largest in peacetime Europe.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[Hadders]

At least when the Hemel Hempstead oil tanks burnt, they were away from housing.

But close enough. I was 6 miles away and the whole house shook.

Very bizarrely, as I was typing that there was a fairly large explosion outside my house now!

The Buncefield explosion, (it was a petroleum vapour explosion that cause the widespread damage), cause many injuries in homes up to a mile away from the source. The oil terminal is located alongside a large industrial/business estate and many of the large buildings were completely destroyed. The explosion happened at 06:01 on a Sunday morning. Had the event happened on a weekday, - maybe at 09:00, the probably have been casualties in three figures. The "oil tanks burning" was the ensuing fire that lasted for over 4 days. That was the largest explosion since Flixborough in 1974 and the whole event, the largest in peacetime Europe.

I remember Buncefield very well as at the time I was an Area Manager for a major retailer and my area covered Hemel Hempstead. I took a call just after 6am from one of my store managers who was distressed saying that the ceiling of the shop (over a mile from Buncefield) had fallen down. I put the TV on and realised something major was going on so thought I better go to the store.

Never seen anything like it - took ages to get there circumnavigating the road closures, as I arrived Sky News were setting up in the shop car park. Talk about a near miss, as @AM9 says if it had been any time of the week other than very early on a Sunday morning I dread to think what the death rate would have been. When the local roads reopened a week or so later I remember driving through the industrial estate and couldn’t believe the devastation.

 

[Bald Rick]

Yes, Buncefield was quite an occasion. I was woken by the ground shockwave, and subsequently heard the explosion. I thought a plane had come down nearby or my boiler had exploded. Then I heard the fire engines from St Albans fire station and knew something big was up.

We lived downwind, and were under the plume - th3 sun didn’t come up that day.

 

[AM9]

Yes, Buncefield was quite an occasion. I was woken by the ground shockwave, and subsequently heard the explosion. I thought a plane had come down nearby or my boiler had exploded. Then I heard the fire engines from St Albans fire station and knew something big was up.

We lived downwind, and were under the plume - th3 sun didn’t come up that day.

That's the first explanation of what I heard as well. I live exactly 3 miles from the centre of Buncefield. Something woke me like a rushing noise and then there was what seemed like an enourmous clap of thunder. I looked out of the window and there was frost on the ground so knew that it was something unusual. A few of minutes later I heard some muffled bangs. I turned on the radio, 3CR I think, and they mentioned a fire at Buncefield. I drove to Leverstock Green Road bridge over the M1 where the flames and smoke could be seen and the M1 was empty apart from a police range rover cruising along.
It was a very strange morning, the plume seemed to go directly along the line of our road with sunshine to the south and clear blue sky to the north. King Harry Lane, was a rat-run on steroids all day.
For most of that week there was an oily smoky smell everywhere.
Given the sequence of events that caused the explosion, I'm surprised that there weren't some serious H&S prosecutions.

 

[Bald Rick]

That's the first explanation of what I heard as well. I live exactly 3 miles from the centre of Buncefield. Something woke me like a rushing noise and then there was what seemed like an enourmous clap of thunder. I looked out of the window and there was frost on the ground so knew that it was something unusual. A few of minutes later I heard some muffled bangs. I turned on the radio, 3CR I think, and they mentioned a fire at Buncefield. I drove to Leverstock Green Road bridge over the M1 where the flames and smoke could be seen and the M1 was empty apart from a police range rover cruising along.
It was a very strange morning, the plume seemed to go directly along the line of our road with sunshine to the south and clear blue sky to the north. King Harry Lane, was a rat-run on steroids all day.
For most of that week there was an oily smoky smell everywhere.
Given the sequence of events that caused the explosion, I'm surprised that there weren't some serious H&S prosecutions.

Yep I drove to the same bridge, and was surprised to see blue sky! Our garden got covered in soot.

 

[Saint66]

I immediately thought of Buncefield when I heard news of the Beirut explosion, but obviously on a much larger scale. As with other posters, everyone in our street was convinced an aircraft had come down.

As others have said, Buncefield was a huge explosion that actually caused a lot of damage to buildings in the local area and not just the industrial estate. I remember quite a few residents and businesses reporting damage (windows, doors and ceilings) in St Albans, at least 4 miles away.

I was quite young at the time and there was two stand out things for me - first, the local schools being closed for 3 days. Secondly, I played Sunday league football as a goalkeeper on the Sunday and that morning as I was stood in my box I felt something very small hit the top of my head and it was a very tiny shard of glass... We were convinced that it had come from the huge plume of smoke, along with ash that was falling at times.

Of course, I cannot imagine having to deal with the scale of devastation seen in Beirut.

 

[Trackman]

Just been reading on the news the President has not ruled out a rocket or bomb attack, however what has emerged they were doing some welding work near the warehouse that caught fire.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Hopefully they do not try and blame the Israelis.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Wow. Wikipedia gives the detonation velocity of ammonium nitrate as 2500 m/s

Which in layman's terms, means what exactly? (N.B. Certainly looks like a big figure!)

A very big bang!

So, does that mean that a 125 metres long warehouse full of ammonium nitrate, once ignited, would be completely vaporized inside one-twentieth of a second?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

The shock wave etc would travel in under 1 second yes

 

[PeterY]

I lived about 1.5 miles from Buncefield but to the side. It did wake me up and I wondered what an earth had happened. It seemed the main shockwave traveled in a southerly direction affecting mainly the Leverstock Green area of Hemel. It didn't fortuneatly do any damage to my house.
I must admit I found it horrifying to what happened in Beirut and my mind straight away thought of Buncefield.

 

[yorkie]

There is a thread about Buncefield here (the forum was created six months earlier):

Buncefield Oil Depot Explosion

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4517962.stm Three large explosions have rocked a fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire shooting flames hundreds of feet into the sky. Police say there are casualties and emergency services are at the scene. The first blast happened at 0603 GMT at the...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[the sniper]

Wow. Wikipedia gives the detonation velocity of ammonium nitrate as 2500 m/s

There's been a lot of Nuclear Bomb references made, but does anybody know what weapon would cause an explosion of similar magnitude to this?

 

[Merle Haggard]

Wow. Wikipedia gives the detonation velocity of ammonium nitrate as 2500 m/s

I don't understand the basis of this calculation.
Ammonium nitrate is an oxidation agent, it provides a supply of oxygen to make something else oxidise (burn). Because it provides a ready supply of oxygen it enables a flammable compound to burn more quickly than if it relied on the supply of oxygen from the air, but the expansion in volume caused by oxidation (i.e. conversion of solid/liquid to gas) - which determines the effect of the explosion - depends on which elements are in the compound being burnt.
I've heard experts on BBC R4 Today describe ammonium nitrate as highly explosive, but this is not strictly correct - it only assists other substances to explode, without them it would be benign.
Chemistry 'A' level 1967 - long time age - have I remembered correctly???

 

[Bald Rick]

There's been a lot of Nuclear Bomb references made, but does anybody know what weapon would cause an explosion of similar magnitude to this?

A very, very large conventional bomb, equivalent to 1,800 tonnes of TNT.

The largest conventional bomb produced for military purposes and used in anger is the US GBU 43B, which has a yield off 11 tonnes of TNT. The Russians have a bomb that yields 44 tonnes, but that works in a different way and for obvious reasons it is not easy to verify its power.


To put Beirut in context, the 1,800t of explosive power is not dissimilar to the approx 2,000 tonnes of explosive power that the Germans landed on London with the entire V1 bomb offensive.

 

[the sniper]

A very, very large conventional bomb, equivalent to 1,800 tonnes of TNT.

The largest conventional bomb produced for military purposes and used in anger is the US GBU 43B, which has a yield off 11 tonnes of TNT. The Russians have a bomb that yields 44 tonnes, but that works in a different way and for obvious reasons it is not easy to verify its power.

To put Beirut in context, the 1,800t of explosive power is not dissimilar to the approx 2,000 tonnes of explosive power that the Germans landed on London with the entire V1 bomb offensive.

Exactly the kind of comparison I was looking for, thanks. And, crikey...

 

[Trackman]

Riot Police on the streets now firing tear gas.
"The people want the fall of the regime," protesters chanted, adding: "Leave, you are all killers."
Also makeshift gallows and nooses have been assembled.
Sounds like its kicking off big style.

 

[ainsworth74]

Exactly the kind of comparison I was looking for, thanks. And, crikey...

Just to add to Bald Rick's excellent answer we are, realistically, into nuclear weapons to generate this sort of damage deliberately as there would be no effective way of delivering this sort of explosive power via conventional weapons*. Indeed the US did develop a nuclear device in the 60s with yield of around 1 kiloton which was able to fit in a large backpack with the intent of being used by special forces against Warsaw Pact targets in the event of war. The Soviet Union also developed similar weapons. It seems both sides have since retired these sorts of weapons and instead these days small yields like this have moved onto more flexible tactical weapons that are usually airdropped. The US B61 nuclear bomb, for instance, includes a version which has the ability to choose from four different yields (it has a variety of versions with different yield ranges) - 0.3, 1.5, 10 or 45 kilotons (Hiroshima was 15 kilotons for reference). Much more flexible than a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate or TNT or your explosive of choice.

*Outside of very specific circumstances. For instance due to the static nature of warfare in World War One it was possible to tunnel under enemy lines and pack tunnels with thousands of kilograms of explosives to destroy enemy fortifications.

 

[the sniper]

The US B61 nuclear bomb, for instance, includes a version which has the ability to choose from four different yields (it has a variety of versions with different yield ranges) - 0.3, 1.5, 10 or 45 kilotons (Hiroshima was 15 kilotons for reference). Much more flexible than a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate or TNT or your explosive of choice.

Thanks for that info too.

 

[ainsworth74]

Reuters have a very interesting article on the comparative size of the explosion (click the link below the quote to see the very interesting graphics):

How powerful was the Beirut blast?
Experts estimate the massive warehouse explosion that sent a devastating blast wave across Beirut could be one of the strongest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded.

“On a scale, this explosion is scaled down from a nuclear bomb rather than up from a conventional bomb,” said Roland Alford, managing director of Alford Technologies, a British company that specialises in disposal of explosive ordnance. “This is probably up there among the biggest non-nuclear explosions of all time.”

Experts have estimated the size of the blast as being the equivalent of 200 to 300 tons of high explosives. Here’s what that figure looks like compared to other accidental explosions and conventional weapons.


George William Herbert, an adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a missile and effects consultant, used two methods to estimate the yield of the explosion. One used visual evidence of the blast itself along with damage assessments. The other calculation was based on the amount of ammonium nitrate reportedly at the source of the explosion.

Both techniques estimate the yield as a few hundred tons of TNT equivalent, with the overlap being 200 to 300, Herbert told Reuters.

The blast rattled buildings on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 100 miles (160 km) away.

A string of explosions

Seismological data suggests that six blasts preceded the main explosion, the last of them a combustion of fireworks that apparently set off a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate, an Israeli analyst said on Thursday.

The six blasts were at 11-second intervals during the Aug. 4 incident, with the main explosion following the last by around 43 seconds, Boaz Hayoun of Israel’s Tamar Group told Reuters.

Hayoun, a former military engineering officer whose current roles include overseeing safety standards for explosives use in Israel, said his analysis was based on data from seismological sensors stationed across the region.

“I cannot say categorically what caused this, but I can say these blasts were at the same location,” he told Reuters.

Among the sensors cited by Hayoun was an array installed about 70 km (43 miles) off Lebanon’s coast by the international geological project IRIS - which cast doubt on his conclusions.

IRIS said its sensors picked up more than five “small bursts” at intervals of around 11 seconds before the main Beirut explosion, a sequence that continued after the incident.

“I do not believe that they are associated with the large explosion in Beirut,” Jerry Carter, director of IRIS data services, told Reuters.

“They could be from a seismic survey,” he added, referring to geologists carrying out airgun bursts for underwater mapping.

Lebanese officials have blamed the explosion, which killed at least 172 people and left much of the capital in ruins, on a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate catching fire after being stored unsafely at the port for years.

President Michel Aoun has said investigators would also look into the possibility of “external interference” such as a bomb, as well as negligence or an accident as causes.

How powerful was the Beirut blast?

Comparing the strength of the explosion to other events and destructive weapons

graphics.reuters.com