Beirut port explosion

[2muchcoffeeman]

Since this keeps showing up on different threads, let’s have its own.

CNN report: A large number of people are reportedly injured after a huge explosion ripped through the port area of Beirut, shattering glass for miles around

The explosion:





The port of Beirut is essentially gone.

 

[User 150927]

I seriously hope this was an accident.

 

[goalmouth]

Saboteurs in WW1 caused a massive explosion in Jersey City, debris damaged the Statue of Liberty's torch. Search Black Tom explosion.

Amateurs can't even keep their cameras on the blast. Pussies.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

 

[Splendid Splinter]

 

[Batman]

Good lord. That one big building in the middle of the port just disintegrated.

 

[Batman]

Saboteurs in WW1 caused a massive explosion in Jersey City, debris damaged the Statue of Liberty's torch. Search Black Tom explosion.

Amateurs can't even keep their cameras on the blast. Pussies.

Not sabotage, but there was also the Texas City explosion in 1947. A cargo ship full of nitrate caught fire and exploded. The blast took out most of the port, killed or incapacitated the city's fire department, destroyed a couple of other ships that were carrying oil and sulfur, and even destroyed two airplanes flying overhead.

Texas City | Texas, United States

Remembering the 1947 Texas City explosion

 

[Chef2]

Sure. Because nothing else could jack up this year any more.

 

[goalmouth]

Looks like daisycutter, MOAB, or other type bunker-buster ordnance.

With a nuclear halo.

 

[Tighthead]

Halifax has a bad explosion in 1917 when two ships collided in the harbour, one carrying munitions.

Halifax Explosion - Wikipedia

 

[Azrael]

not a nuke

just the pressure wave encountering the moisture in the air

thread here

 

[Chef2]

See the halo is the first thing that caught my attention as well.......

 

[goalmouth]

Back in the Seventies the Star-Ledger printed a box with daily weather from cities around the world. Beirut was always N/A, which I found fascinating in a morbid kind of way.

 

[Batman]

Halifax has a bad explosion in 1917 when two ships collided in the harbour, one carrying munitions.

Halifax Explosion - Wikipedia

Another one: The German air raid on Bari, Italy, during WWII. One of the burning ships contained mustard gas bombs, which poisoned hundreds of soldiers and civilians.

Air raid on Bari - Wikipedia

 

[User 150927]

Saw a reference somewhere that the red would be indicative of nitrates.

 

[maumann]

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but the Port Chicago, Calif., munitions explosion during World War II obliterated an entire Navy ship and heavily damaged every building in town. That and the Halifax disaster were the first two thoughts that came to mind.

 

[Neutral Corner]

All the self appointed explosive experts on Twitter seemed certain it was a nuke. No flash, plus the area around the port still exists to take pictures of when it would be just gone for a mile or so.

Yes, there was a mushroom cloud, which happens with big explosions due to thermal dynamics. I also saw speculation about a terrorist bomb making plant... but a big pile of nitrates near a fireworks plant explosion sounds very believable.

 

[Slacker]

All the self appointed explosive experts on Twitter seemed certain it was a nuke. No flash, plus the area around the port still exists to take pictures of when it would be just gone for a mile or so.

What about all the smoke and flashes from smaller explosions before the big one?

 

[Neutral Corner]

The quoted bit is me saying "No, dumbass, it wasn't a nuke." The part about "a big pile of nitrates near a fireworks plant explosion sounds very believable"is me saying that until we hear something solid after the site is examined I think that is a plausible explanation. It could also have been something on the order of a dust explosion, as in a grain elevator or sugar plant, but no one has mentioned such a thing as being nearby.

 

[Chef2]