Left: Image claimed to show Ammonium Nitrate shipment at port of Beirut. Right: satellite image (courtesy of Google/Maxar Technologies) and still from video of fire.
Left: Drone image showing crater, Right: measurement of crater (courtesy of Google/Maxar.)
A good summary of what I am seeing on Twitter.
If the ammonium nitrate story turns out to be true, the utter incompetence of decision making in Beirut is only matched by the American people in electing BHO twice.
Just wow! Impressive hole in the ground
It boils down to what detonator with adequate explosive energy was used to set off relatively stable ammonium nitrate?
Others pointed to a 2,750 ton shipment of ammonium nitrate that had been sitting at the Port since at least late 2013. Al Jazeera reported that, despite repeated requests for guidance by the customs authority, no decision were made regarding what to do with this shipment. Instead, it simply remained in a warehouse at the port.
This matched statements from the Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who blamed a shipment of 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate which had been sitting at the port for six years.
The videos showed the smoke from the first blast and very numerous smaller explosions at the base of the fire, suggesting ammunition or fireworks were being detonated.
The the really big main explosion occurs, generating an ascending shock wave that condenses the water vapor in the air as it expands and demolishes the large apartment building near it.
It was incredible that anyone would store 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate anywhere in close proximity to anyone, much less a major city - normal safety precautions would have required dividing that explosive into smaller amounts and storing it in bunkers away from any people. (When I was in the Defense Nuclear Agency, we used 5,000 tons of ammonium nitrate to simulate a low-level nuclear event - but that was far out in the desert).
The real mystery is what else was involved in the first detonation and the smaller detonations that preceded to main blast - and why that much explosive material was stored so close to a city.
I was amazed at the video and audio of the explosion and the shock wave, which I watched on a different FR post.
Anyone who scoffed at the claim that it might have been a tactical nuke will reconsider after seeing it.
The explosion is instantaneous and symmetrical.
The only way 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate could blow up like that is if the whole building was wired with electrical detonators.
Good thing it was located by the seaside. If this warehouse had been in the city center...
incredible!
The picture of the men working and the other picture of that door in the warehouse are NOT the same place, there is no wall above the men nor is there a portico. Where the men are working is a long opening all the way to the roof. It seems to be the opposite side of where the picture of the warehouse was taken.
Those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
From wiki:
“The 1947 Texas City disaster was an industrial accident that occurred on April 16, 1947, in the Port of Texas City, Texas, at Galveston Bay. It was the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, and one of history’s largest non-nuclear explosions. A mid-morning fire started on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp (docked in the port), and detonated her cargo of about 2,300 tons (about 2,086 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate.[1] This started a chain reaction of fires and explosions in other ships and nearby oil-storage facilities, ultimately killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.[2]
The Grandcamp was a recently re-activated 437-foot-long (133 m) Liberty ship. Originally named the SS Benjamin R. Curtis in Los Angeles in 1942, the ship served in the Pacific theatre and was mothballed in Philadelphia after World War II. In a Cold War gesture, the ship was assigned by the United States to the French Line to assist in the rebuilding of France, along with other efforts in Europe. Along with the ammonium nitrate—a very common cargo on the high seas—it was carrying small arms ammunition, machinery, and bales of sisal twine on the deck. Another ship in the harbor, the SS High Flyer, was docked about 600 feet (200 m) away from the SS Grandcamp. The High Flyer contained an additional 961 short tons (872 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate[1] and 1,800 short tons (1,600 metric tons) of sulfur. The ammonium nitrate in the two ships and fertilizer in the adjacent warehouse was intended for export to farmers in Europe. The Grandcamp had arrived from Houston, where the port authority did not permit loading of ammonium nitrate.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster
Ammonium nitrate caused a similar sized explosion in Tianjin China in 2015
Thanks for posting. Did it take out that fatazz Hassan Nasrallah?
Unbelievable......
I wonder how many people really died. It has to be far more than they are saying.
It looks like Ground Zero.
We have tactical nukes with lower yields than that explosion.
Poster “ Carlos Osweda” on twatter has published some very interesting analysis that this was a controlled event ( two separate explosions) that essentially took out missile warheads and rocket fuel, owned by Iran, under Hezbollah control. He also reminds that US and Israel are NOT the only state actors with the skills to carry out such an operation,
Thread app unroll
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1290877217694552066.html
Should have stored that stuff in the Bekaa Valley along with Saddam’s WMDs.
If you had told me that was a tactical nuke I would not have argued with you.
Carlos thread 1
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1290748019218853890.html
Carlos thread 2
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1290776857357344768.html
Carlos thread 3
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1290807851053506561.html
Location for the curious:
https://plus.codes 8G5QWG29+GH
33.901313,35.518937
Historical info also at Wikipedia on the Port of Beirut.
bkmk for later study.