Massive explosions in Beirut

[daddyusmaximus]

I too am skeptical that the explosion was primarily AN.

It -is- true that AN is very hydroscopic and the 'wetter' it gets the tougher it is to detonate.
It is not true that AN requires an additive to make it an explosive. It does take extra effort to set off AN alone but it can be done and is commonly used for moving earth. Additives will sensitize it. Certain additives will also improve its performance as an explosive.
In general AN is so insensitive, and so efficient as a nitrogen source, it is used just about everywhere as a fertilizer. Its quite safe if you don't heat it up a lot and don't contaminate it. IIRC, after the Oklahoma City bombing, US suppliers had to reformulate commercial AN fertilizer so it can't be detonated.

Putting AN in close proximity to a sustained fire can make the material susceptible to violent decomposition. Since AN is an oxidizer, it can also make a fire difficult to put out, but AN doesn't burn well alone. In several of the industrial explosions involving AN that made history, firefighters were actively fighting the fire up until the explosion.

I expect that the same could happen with some other previously mentioned compounds.

Depends on what you "wet" it with... Let's say, for the sake of argument, it accidentally got some diesel spilled on it...

[davidjinks]

I didn’t read the DM article, however in regards to the excerpt that you quoted...

That guy is full of shit. The cloud you see is exactly what AN looks like when it is detonated, raw, unmixed and not boosted. What caused it? Beats the hell out of me. Could it have been a propagation type event? Sure.

At the end of the day, who really gives a shit? Third world shitholes doing third world shithole stuff. Maybe next time they can make it even bigger with lots more explodey.

From the Daily Mail article

Robert Baer, a former CIA operative who operated for years in the Middle East, stuck a more nuanced tone -saying the explosion appears to have been an accident, but he is not convinced that ammonium nitrate was the sole cause.

He pointed to videos of what appeared to be fireworks going off amid a pall of white smoke, right before the main blast which sent a column of reddish-brown smoke high into the sky.

Baer told CNN that those 'fireworks' were likely munitions that had been stored as part of a weapons cache that included military-grade propellant.

'It was clearly a military explosive,' he said. 'It was not fertilizer like ammonium nitrate. I'm quite sure of that.'

But he added that it would likely take years to learn the truth of what caused the blast, if it was ever revealed, because 'no one is going to want to admit they kept military explosives at the port'.

[davidjinks]

Having actual hands on experience with raw AN, that's exactly what it looks like when it detonates.

So, let's give the benefit of the doubt to the current mainstream explanation of "Ammonium Nitrate" as outlined by the Daily Mail. (There could have been AN as well as other explosives etc. so it could be true that AN was left there to "rot" since 2014 and was a major part of the explosion, along with other stuff -- as I mentioned earlier, AN usually does not give off red/pink smoke but rather yellow/golden brown according to a former ATF investigator quoted in another article).

Why would the government not act on the many warnings that came from the custom's authorities? Maybe they were under pressure to leave it be so that certain parties that actually run Lebanon could use it to create bombs etc.? Someone wanted that AN to remain there.

[davidjinks]

Hygroscopic

I too am skeptical that the explosion was primarily AN.

It -is- true that AN is very hydroscopic and the 'wetter' it gets the tougher it is to detonate.
It is not true that AN requires an additive to make it an explosive. It does take extra effort to set off AN alone but it can be done and is commonly used for moving earth. Additives will sensitize it. Certain additives will also improve its performance as an explosive.
In general AN is so insensitive, and so efficient as a nitrogen source, it is used just about everywhere as a fertilizer. Its quite safe if you don't heat it up a lot and don't contaminate it. IIRC, after the Oklahoma City bombing, US suppliers had to reformulate commercial AN fertilizer so it can't be detonated.

Putting AN in close proximity to a sustained fire can make the material susceptible to violent decomposition. Since AN is an oxidizer, it can also make a fire difficult to put out, but AN doesn't burn well alone. In several of the industrial explosions involving AN that made history, firefighters were actively fighting the fire up until the explosion.

I expect that the same could happen with some other previously mentioned compounds.

[P2Vaircrewman]

The picture of the sacks stored in the warehouse are labeled Nitroprill HD, used as an explosive in open pit mining.

http://www.oricaminingservices.com/a...s/nitropril/56

[HKGuns]

I'm guessing Omar lost more than a finger in this one.

Did someone say $hithole? Ha!

[mack7.62]

Well well well...

"Hezbollah Terror Chief Threatened to Destroy Israel with Ammonium Nitrate Explosion"

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-eas...onium-nitrate/

I thought this was interesting, wonder if the 3 tons found in London just happened to come from that stockpile that just xpolded.

"Hezbollah stockpiled chemical behind Beirut blast in London and Germany

Hezbollah kept three metric tons of ammonium nitrate, the explosive thought to be behind the mega blast in Beirut this week, in a storehouse in London, until MI5 and the London Metropolitan Police found it in 2015."

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/he...-london-637578

[sundance435]

Let's think about the cover story for a second.

First why would someone in Lebanon need so much Ammonia Nitrate?

Yoni, I know you have way more experience in 3rd-world shitholes (which, for some others on here, Lebanon does not neatly fit into) to not accept that this could just be the accumulation of a bunch of dumbshit, 3rd-world-thought-process decisions. I have seen things in the 3rd world that are as baffling as alien encounters. It does not strike me as at all out of the ordinary in the 3rd world that there were tons of improperly stored AN next to tons of improperly stored explosives, waiting for a catalyst. I'm not arguing that Hezbollah may have had an indirect hand in the chain of events, since by all accounts they exert some kind of control over the port.

[yoni]

Nasrallah the head terrorist of Hezbullah, put his brother in law in charge of the port. No matter what the government says Hezbullah runs Lebanon.

I don't believe the cover story of almost 3000 metric tons of ammonia nitrate, the origin of this story was wait for it......... drum roll........ Hezbullah.

I am 100% convinced what went up was one of the major Hezbullah weapons cache.

[LMT/556]

Nasrallah the head terrorist of Hezbullah, put his brother in law in charge of the port. No matter what the government says Hezbullah runs Lebanon.

I don't believe the cover story of almost 3000 metric tons of ammonia nitrate, the origin of this story was wait for it......... drum roll........ Hezbullah.

I am 100% convinced what went up was one of the major Hezbullah weapons cache.

2750 tons of stabilized blasting agent plus munitions...
Very few things boom like that small kiloton yield, impressive blast. If terrorist shitbags owned it, whoever lit it off +1...