ammonium nitrate explosion

The explosion took place when workers used dynamite to break up ammonium nitrate that was caked together, a common practice at the time, according to Prof. Oxley. The colossal explosion in Lebanon’s capital this week was apparently caused when more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate detonated. But David Chavez, an explosives scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, doubts that scenario. Ammonium nitrate, which is used in fertilizers and bomb making, is a salt made from ammonium and nitric acid, and it is highly explosive. “Plastics, for example, paint, and other organic materials that completely or partially burned—all the building materials that became dust.”, The deadly history of ammonium nitrate, the explosive linked to the Beirut blast, Photograph by Anwar AMRO, AFP via Getty Images. Die Explosion war noch im 300 Kilometer entfernten München zu hören. Smoke rising after the explosion in Beirut. By contrast, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 had a yield of at least 13,000 tons of TNT. Lebanon explosion: What is ammonium nitrate, which authorities claim to be behind the blast AFP Washington, August 05, 2020 08:54 IST Updated: August 05, … It is the main component of explosive used in mining activities all over the world and hasn’t been banned as reported. Ammonium nitrate is used in fertilizer and in the mining industry as an explosive to blast rock and move mounds of earth. The site, which belonged to … That bomb, the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast, has a net explosive weight of 18,700 pounds or roughly 9.35 tons of TNT, according to data from the U.S. Army Defense Ammunition Center. Even a small amount of contamination would have made the ammonium nitrate more likely to detonate. The gas released from the decomposing fertiliser is what drives the explosion. According to the Lebanese government, about 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was stored in a warehouse on the Beirut waterfront and caught fire, later exploding. Maritime traffic services and documents obtained by CNN describe a shipment of 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate that was detained in Beirut in … The decomposition temperature of pure ammonium nitrate is 170 °C, but recently Gunawan and Zhang [6] calculated that an intimate mixture of ammonium nitrate and pyrite can decompose at temperatures as low as 50 °C in blast holes more than 0.2 m in diameter. In 1947, an explosion in Texas City, Texas, killed at least 581 people and wounded 3,500 after two cargo ships carrying ammonium nitrate caught fire. Pure ammonium nitrate is not an explosive on its own. The Biggest Ammonium Nitrate Explosions since 2000. Following the destruction caused by ammonium nitrate exploding at Beirut's port, there are concerns globally about its storage. Lebanon was already dealing with political and financial woes, due in part to the Syrian migration crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. In 2013, ammonium nitrate caused a deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. John Ismay was a bomb disposal officer in the U.S. Navy before he became a reporter for The Times Magazine’s At War section. What Is Ammonium Nitrate, Blamed in the Beirut Explosion? Solution for Ammonium nitrate is an explosive and a fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate would only explode on its own if its temperature was rapidly raised to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In these cases (e.g., an explosion in 1977), the explosions of ammonium nitrate occurred as a result of excessively high temperatures and confinement during processing. EPA 550 … Lebanese authorities are blaming the incident on more than 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, a substance commonly used in fertilizers as well as in explosives for mining and construction projects. EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response; Explosion Hazard from Ammonium Nitrate. While intended to foil attempted sabotage, the regulations tightly control movements and storage of hazardous materials like ammonium nitrate for reasons of general public safety. An explosion occurred in a warehouse storing some 300 metric tons of ammonium nitrate in the southern French city of Toulouse. Ammonium nitrate was also involved in that explosion. The huge change in phase creates a shockwave.”. Lebanese officials say ammonium nitrate, a substance used as fertilizer in agriculture, likely caused the massive explosion in Beirut. In 2013, a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, caught fire and exploded, killing 15 people. This week, a massive explosion involving ammonium nitrate rocked the city of Beirut, sending shock waves through the media.. Blast calculations suggest that at sea level, an explosion like Beirut’s would require about 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. But if added to a fuel source, and subjected to intense stresses like heat and pressure, it can explode. Though Lebanese authorities have said ammonium nitrate was the culprit in the blast, Lewis notes that in many cases commercial explosives are referred to as just this compound even though they contain additives. The cargo ship Grandcamp was in Texas City harbor being loaded when a fire was detected in the hold. Bags containing ammonium nitrate fertilizer are dispalyed in an agricultural trader in Vieillevigne, France, October 7, 2016. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/deadly-history-ammonium-nitrate-explosive-linked-to-beirut-blast.html, math pioneered in the 1940s to infer the atomic bomb’s yield. … Die Explosion des Oppauer Stickstoffwerkes ereignete sich am 21. This recent tragedy is devastating, and unfortunately, it’s not the first time this dangerous chemical compound has caused widespread damage. The energy of the detonation wave causes the ammonium nitrate to vaporise - becoming a gas in an instant. Here is the information he has gathered about the explosion in Beirut. While these alternatives have helped, it is important to note that unintended impurities in the manufacturing process may reduce its stability or facilitate explosion. But the chemical has a more nefarious use -- as an explosive. Aluminum sulfate has also been used as a drying additive for ammonium nitrate. What sparked the explosion is still unknown. “The human impact of it is the important thing, and it affected people a dozen kilometers away.”. The blast registered as magnitude 3.3 on the Richter scale, and caused devastation usually associated with major earthquakes. The fertilizer arrived in the city more than six years ago aboard a Russian-owned cargo ship that made an unscheduled stop in the city. In the Beirut explosion, the resulting shockwave moved faster than the speed of sound; cell phone videos show the impact washing over the city a few seconds before a sonic boom rumbles. Once a reaction is sparked (by some other means) the ammonium nitrate quickly decomposes into… “There’s a massive amount of energy given off very quickly,” says Stephen Beaudoin, a chemical engineer also at Purdue University. Any carbon-rich fuel—paper, cardboard, or even sugar—can pair with ammonium nitrate to produce more intense energy. McVeigh left the truck after setting a five-minute fuse to detonate the mixture. “All kinds of other materials probably ignited and burned,” says Beaudoin. And just five years ago, an estimated 800 tons of ammonium nitrate fueled a warehouse explosion that leveled part of a port in the Chinese city of Tianjin, killing 173. 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