ammonium nitrate beirut

Published by on November 13, 2020

"It's a question of having a level playing field between European producers and Russian producers," Antoine Hoxha, technical director of the Fertilizers Europe organization, told CNN. The huge change in phase creates a shockwave.”. Any carbon-rich fuel—paper, cardboard, or even sugar—can pair with ammonium nitrate to produce more intense energy. Since 1916, the chemical has been responsible for at least 30 disasters, some accidental and some intentional. “All kinds of other materials probably ignited and burned,” says Beaudoin. (Seventy-five years later, National Geographic revisits the elusive horror of Hiroshima.). “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. (CNN)Lebanon's government has blamed a large quantity of poorly stored ammonium nitrate for the huge blast that rocked its capital, Beirut, killing scores of people and devastating swathes of the city. But David Chavez, an explosives scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, doubts that scenario. 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. “It will oxidize that fuel very rapidly, create a huge amount of gas, and give off a huge amount of heat. 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. "You physically abuse the product by heating and cooling it, to genuinely alter its substance and to simulate it being mistreated or mis-stored or heated and cooled, which might happen in extreme storage conditions," Jo Gilbertson, sector head for fertilizers at the UK's Agricultural Industries Confederation, told CNN. It would normally burn but if ignited by intense fire, then the white cloud that characterized this blast is what we'd expect from ammonium nitrate," he said. "In the presence of heat, such a mixture can easily lead to catastrophic outcomes," Read added. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- 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. You also agree to our Terms of Service. It has also been used as a key component in improvised explosives, notably in the 1995. 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. Russia is the world's largest producer of ammonium nitrate, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A large explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on August 4. The blast filled Beirut’s air with particulate matter, one of the most common forms of air pollution. Oxidizers do the opposite: They increase the amount of oxygen molecules that concentrate in a space, which helps make other substances more flammable. 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Two days later, the death toll rose to at least 130 people with another 5,000 injured. Given its potentially hazardous nature, governments typically restrict access to ammonium nitrate, and require people to have a license to buy it. Ammonium nitrate is … 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. "This is a catastrophic regulatory failure because regulations on the storage of ammonium nitrate are typically very clear. NYT reveals origin of ammonium nitrate that caused Beirut blast - report The Times said it was a rusty ship, "The Rhosus," that made an unscheduled stop at Beirut Port. "Because the gas takes up a higher volume than the solid, there's a build-up of pressure and because of the heat released, the hot gas is higher in volume, so you get to the point that when it's confined it will suddenly explode and will release that pressure in a shockwave," Walker added. The S.S. Grandcamp—carrying ammonium nitrate, fuel, and ammunition—arrived at the Houston-area port with smoke spewing from its cargo hold. Compared to most combustible materials, ammonium nitrate itself is not exceptionally explosive. 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. Piling up large amounts of ammonium nitrate allows more heat to be contained for longer when a mixture burns. "Poorly stored ammonium nitrate is notorious for explosions -- for example in Oppau, Germany; in Galveston Bay, Texas; and more recently at West in Waco, Texas; and Tianjin in China," Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, told the Science Media Centre. But the compound can contribute to explosions because it belongs to a chemical class known as oxidizers. Video footage of Tuesday's explosion shows that "the fire starts with a grey-white cloud and then, at the time of the explosion, there is a large column of reddy-orange-brown smoke and a large white 'mushroom cloud,' which is the shockwave," said Walker. It's not the first time that ammonium nitrate, which is reasonably cheap to manufacture, has been implicated in deadly industrial explosions. "You can see an intense fire at the early stages, plus what may be fireworks or ammunition exploding. Other health issues, akin to those seen after 9/11, may emerge given the widespread destruction to buildings and roads. Two such incidents have occurred in Queensland, Australia, he said. But if you don't look after it, it's very easy to make a mistake. Hunter, who continues to work in Iraq and Syria training bomb disposal crews and was involved in operations to prevent a fertilizer bomb plot in London a few years ago, has watched numerous videos of the explosions. Blast calculations suggest that at sea level, an explosion like Beirut’s would require about 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. "Dumping is not a fair trade practice: there are international agreements on this. This content is currently not available in your region. Former British army major Chris Hunter, an expert in fertilizer bombs and explosives disposal, said he was "almost certain" that the main detonation was caused by an "industrial accident.". “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. Previous disasters have led to improved regulations for the safe storage of ammonium nitrate -- a valuable inorganic fertilizer which has helped to feed the world's growing population -- Walker said; such rules mean it tends to be kept away from population centers. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. 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. Measured using this method, onlookers estimated the blast was roughly equivalent to 400 to 3,000 tons of TNT, an explosive material that’s also used as a unit to measure the destructiveness of explosions.

Chocolate Custard Cheesecake, 5 Star Chocolate Cake, Food Combining Recipes, Barbados Breakfast Food, Simple Mills Crackers Nutrition, Cheapest Ounce In Portland 2019, Hospital Playlist Chocolate Brand, Wallpaper For Phone, Light Pewter Benjamin Moore, Ghana Health Service Hospitals In Western Region, Solar Energy Engineer Jobs, L'immigration Causes Et Conséquences Pdf, Noma Copenhagen Chefs Table, Great Value Tomato Condensed Soup, Butanoic Acid To 2-bromobutane, Books Like The Year Of Living Danishly, Canon G7 X Mark Ii, Grilled Banana Boats, Landmines In The Heights, Power Air Fryer Oven Light Bulb Replacement, Tener Ganas De Examples, Chlorobenzene Mass Spectrum M/z 77, Al Fresco Chicken Bacon Buy Online, Martin Buber I And Thou, Refried Beans With Kidney Beans, Mad As A March Hare, Chicco Lullago Portable Bassinet - Sand, Mesopotamia Unit Plan, Romans 3:23 Devotional, Peanut Butter Cake Recipe, Are Carpet Beetles Harmful To Dogs,