The blast, which rattled entire buildings and broke glass, was felt across the city. Given that these back-of-the-envelope calculations come with a wide margin of error, the estimate is consistent with the 2,750 tons that Lebanese officials say was stored by the port. The blast filled Beirut’s air with particulate matter, one of the most common forms of air pollution. What detonated the explosive compound remains unclear—but the Beirut blast is not the first time ammonium nitrate has led to calamity. The ensuing explosion killed some 600 people, including everyone on the dock and ship. The shipment was eventually abandoned, and its cargo moved into the hangar where it remained, despite Lebanese custom officials requesting its disposal on at least six different occasions, according to The New York Times. Cell phone videos also show the shockwave and dust cloud rushing through the portside buildings, leaving behind scenes of carnage in the Lebanese capital. Former justice minister and ex-Internal Security Forces head Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi said Thursday that he has testified before Judge Fadi Sawwan that Iran had sent the ammonium nitrate shipment that eventually caused the August 4 catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port. Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who himself was caretaker prime minister when the ammonium nitrate entered the port, said there was a double standard in charging Diab over the blast … It is not used as an explosive on its own, rather it is an oxidiser and makes a fire more intense, according to Gabriel da Silva, a senior lecturer in chemical engineering at the University of Melbourne. Indian Regulation For Ammonium Nitrate . “There’s a massive amount of energy given off very quickly,” says Stephen Beaudoin, a chemical engineer also at Purdue University. It is also one of the main components in mining explosives. Since 1916, the chemical has been responsible for at least 30 disasters, some accidental and some intentional. All about ammonium nitrate — chemical behind the massive blast in Lebanon’s Beirut While ammonium nitrate does not combust on its own, it can explode if contaminated by a flammable substance like oil, or if it comes in contact with fire. All ammonium nitrate plants produce an aqueous ammonium nitrate solution through the reaction of ammonia and nitric acid in a neutralizer. “If you look at the smoke that came from the blast it’s this kind of blood red colour. Though Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, estimates it’s probably closer to 400 tons. Compared to most combustible materials, ammonium nitrate itself is not exceptionally explosive. It is a good source of nitrogen for plants but in the right (or wrong) circumstances it is also highly explosive, as has been seen in the numerous terrifying videos of the Beirut blast which have gone viral. However, da Silva said, it ignites only under the right circumstances, and these are difficult to achieve. Fenianos, caretaker PM Hassan Diab and ex-ministers Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zoaiter have recently been charged with negligence … In April 1995, American terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols used two tons of the compound in a truck-bomb attack on the Oklahoma City federal building; 168 people were killed. Other health issues, akin to those seen after 9/11, may emerge given the widespread destruction to buildings and roads. In his statement on Thursday, Rifi said he told Sawwan that quantities from the ammonium nitrate shipment had been used by the Syrian regime and … The images coming out of Beirut are also horribly reminiscent of the destruction inflicted on the Chinese city of Tianjin by a 2015 warehouse disaster that killed more than 170 people and left hundreds injured. I was bloodied and dazed. Some internet rumors speculate that because the ammonium nitrate was left to sit in a warehouse for several years, it would have degraded, becoming more volatile and increasingly dangerous over time. Look closely at footage of downtown Beirut, and you can see the ground warp and buckle just after the blast erupted from the warehouse on August 4. Chinese authorities later claimed the first explosion had been triggered when the summer heat caused a highly flammable compound called nitrocellulose to spontaneously ignite. Fireworks and ammonium nitrate appear to have been the fuel that ignited a massive explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, experts and videos of the blast suggest. “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. Why we will not forgive the men who did this to Beirut, Full report: Huge explosion rocks Lebanese capital, ‘We’re cursed’: shock and despair in Beirut as explosion devastates city, 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded, killed more than 170 people and left hundreds injured, The majority of those killed were firefighters. 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. When something burns, it requires oxygen—that’s why fire extinguishers can easily put out flames by smothering them. By comparing the blast’s size against nearby buildings, video of the Beirut incident shows that in the eighth of a second after the explosion occurred, its spherical shockwave grew to roughly 800 feet wide. Beirut explosion: Tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at blast site. 4 Aug, 2020 10:56 PM Quick Read. Credit: Fadel Itani/NurPhoto/Getty . Share on Pinterest. Oxidizers do the opposite: They increase the amount of oxygen molecules that concentrate in a space, which helps make other substances more flammable. Seventy-five years later, National Geographic revisits the elusive horror of Hiroshima. On the night of 12 August a series of cataclysmic detonations rocked an area of warehouses where large quantities of hazardous chemicals, also including sodium cyanide and potassium nitrate, were being stored, in some cases illegally. Ammonium nitrate is formed when ammonia gas is combined with liquid nitric acid. The Roseburg Blast: A truck carrying dynamite and 4.5 tons of ammonium nitrate caught … Annually, the world produces and stores enormous amounts of ammonium nitrate—more than 20 million tons in 2017. Nearby stores of ammonium nitrate then caught fire and exploded in the major port city, which lies 110km (70 miles) south-east of the capital Beijing. Using math pioneered in the 1940s to infer the atomic bomb’s yield, experts can analyze videos of a shockwave to get rough estimates of an explosion’s total energy and how much material blew up. If the 2,700-tonne figure is accurate, that would make the ammonium nitrate explosion larger than the 1947 Texas City Disaster, when a consignment of 2,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded, killing nearly 500 people. Share on Facebook. Two days later, the death toll rose to at least 130 people with another 5,000 injured. Any carbon-rich fuel—paper, cardboard, or even sugar—can pair with ammonium nitrate to produce more intense energy. Beirut strangers treated me like a … Firefighters who rushed to the scene reportedly attempted to extinguish the initial blaze with water – only to inadvertently exacerbate the situation because of the presence of hazardous flammable chemicals. “As I … Ammonium nitrate is used for both fertilizer and controlled blasting at mines and quarries in Canada and around the world. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Nature. Even a small amount of contamination would have made the ammonium nitrate more likely to detonate. To produce a solid product, the ammonium nitrate solution is concentrated in an evaporator or concentrator. Though ammonium nitrate was first synthesized in 1659 by German chemist Johann Rudolf Glauber, it wasn’t used in explosives until World War I, when weapon makers mixed it with TNT (aka dynamite) to make cheaper bombs. Approximately 60 percent of the ammonium nitrate produced in the U. S. is sold as a solid product. Perhaps the closest comparison to Beirut's explosion, in terms of scale, is a blast in Texas City in 1947, which was caused by 2,300 US tons (about 2,087 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate. The chemicals reportedly have been sitting by the docks since 2013. But David Chavez, an explosives scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, doubts that scenario. “Ammonium nitrate does not degrade with time under normal storage conditions,” he says. August 10, 2020 by admin 0 Comments. Ammonium Nitrate is used by the military around the world as an explosive as well as in terrorist activities like the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, killing 168 people. Why Beirut’s ammonium nitrate blast was so devastating. “It’s relatively difficult to make pure ammonium nitrate go off unless you add things to it and cook it in a giant fire,” says Davin Piercey, a chemist at Purdue University. The blast registered as magnitude 3.3 on the Richter scale, and caused devastation usually associated with major earthquakes. Such investigations may take time. 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. 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. Moreover, the decomposition of ammonium nitrate can create byproducts known as nitrogen oxides, which are known to cause respiratory distress. The huge change in phase creates a shockwave.”. Reconstructing exactly what went wrong in Beirut will be difficult, but Chavez says officials should look for evidence of improper storage, confinement, contamination, lack of ventilation, and potential sources of ignition. • This article was amended on 13 August 2020 to remove a reference to the 1947 Texas City explosion causing a “tidal” wave, and to clarify some of the properties of ammonium nitrate. Ship carrying ammonium nitrate behind Beirut blast passed through Istanbul Nerdun Hacıoğlu - MOSCOW. Available for everyone, funded by readers, Signs of life detected in remains of building by port in Lebanon’s capital were of fellow rescuers, Business is strong for glaziers but the mood among most rescuers and residents is sombre, Search renewed after pulsing signal that may be heartbeat heard under collapsed building, US diplomat David Hale calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the blast. With such a powerful blast, ammonium nitrate has been used by armies around the world as an explosive. Beirut rescuers give up after sensors gave false hopes of more survivors, A city in need of miracles: few glimmers of hope in Beirut's reconstruction effort, Possible sign of life detected under Beirut rubble weeks after blast, Beirut explosion: FBI to take part in Lebanon investigation, Beirut blast: judge questions security chiefs as third minister resigns, Beirut explosion: protests outside parliament call for fall of government, Lebanon information minister quits in first cabinet resignation since blast, Time for a full clearout. What leveled Beirut on Tuesday sounds eerily similar to descriptions of a massive 1947 explosion in Texas City, Texas. 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 majority of those killed were firefighters, including at least one teenager. An explosion of ammonium nitrate was responsible for the worst industrial accident in US history in 1947. The computational fluid dynamics blast study of the 2,750-tonne ammonium nitrate explosion shows the blast wave loading around the harbour asymmetrically because of … Share on LinkedIn . Or, this discrepancy might mean that the material inside the warehouse was not pure ammonium nitrate, and some other compound was involved with the blast. Beirut mayor Marwan Abboud told Agence France-Presse that 300,000 people are unable to return to their homes, as the damage covered half the city and could cost up to $15 billion to repair. “It will oxidize that fuel very rapidly, create a huge amount of gas, and give off a huge amount of heat. That’s because of the nitrogen oxide air pollutants in it,” he said. The blast created a 4.5-metre (15ft) wave. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- (Seventy-five years later, National Geographic revisits the elusive horror of Hiroshima.). Share on Twitter. Ammonium Nitrate, Which Caused Beirut Blast, Has a Bloodied Past With Several Industrial Accidents. Such was the force of the Tianjin explosions that they registered as small earthquakes. "If the pictures are right, this was something meant to be an oxidizer used with other agents," such as explosives used for mining, he says. World. It remains unclear what caused the chemical to ignite. If the ammonium nitrate in Beirut was stored in wooden or cardboard containers, it would have made the substance incredibly flammable, says Jimmie Oxley, a chemist at the University of Rhode Island. Lebanon’s prime minister, Hassan Diab, said 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded after lying unsecured in a warehouse for six years, tallying with reports that a ship carrying a similar quantity of the chemical had unloaded its cargo at the port in 2013. The scale of the damage — from the epicenter of the explosion at the port of Beirut to the windows blown out kilometers (miles) away — resembles other blasts involving the chemical compound commonly used … Last modified on Thu 13 Aug 2020 11.31 EDT. All rights reserved. “You need extreme circumstances to set off an explosion,” he said. By contrast, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 had a yield of at least 13,000 tons of TNT. WASHINGTON: Ammonium nitrate, which Lebanese authorities have said was the cause of the Beirut blast, is an odorless crystalline substance commonly used … The devastating explosion in Beirut should be a wake-up call for countries on the dangers of ammonium nitrate, which caused the blast, experts say. A large explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on August 4. Former public works minister Youssef “Fenianos did not inform me of the presence of the ammonium nitrate at the port and we hold the president of the republic responsible because he is a military man who knows ammonium nitrate’s danger,” Franjieh added. An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the surrounding area on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. 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. While the chemicals in the air should dissipate fairly quickly, lingering pollutants can cause problems later, for example if they acidify rain. “I think that’s what’s happened here,” said da Silva. Rescuers searched for survivors in Beirut in the morning after a cataclysmic explosion at the port sowed devastation across entire neighbourhoods, killing more than 100 people, wounding thousands and plunging Lebanon deeper into crisis. If the 2,700-tonne figure is accurate, that would make the ammonium nitrate explosion larger than the 1947 Texas City Disaster, when a consignment of 2,300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate … The likely cause of the huge blast in Beirut on Tuesday appears to have been the highly reactive chemical ammonium nitrate. The S.S. Grandcamp —carrying ammonium nitrate, fuel, and ammunition—arrived at the Houston-area port with smoke spewing from its cargo hold. But for the compound to figure in an explosion of this magnitude, chemists and explosives experts say a lot has to go wrong. While ammonium nitrate can in fact put out a fire, if the chemical itself is contaminated, for example with oil, it becomes highly explosive. The more ammonium nitrate… Injuries surpassed more than 5,000; the blast destroyed 500 homes and the smoke from it billowed for days. 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