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 … The deadly Lebanon blast has called into question the safety of large stockpiles of ammonium nitrate in Australia. Share on Pinterest. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. The S.S. Grandcampâcarrying ammonium nitrate, fuel, and ammunitionâarrived at the Houston-area port with smoke spewing from its cargo hold. Share on Twitter. The S.S. Grandcamp —carrying ammonium nitrate, fuel, and ammunition—arrived at the Houston-area port with smoke spewing from its cargo hold. The blast, which rattled entire buildings and broke glass, was felt across the city. Between 6,000 and 12,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate is stored at Orica's Kooragang plant in Newcastle The plant is within 800m of North Stockton residents and 3km of the Newcastle CBD Orica says safe storage of the chemical is strictly regulated and audited Lebanon's Interior Minister said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was in the Beirut blast. 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. 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 … 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. 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. (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. 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. A more likely explanation is that the ammonium nitrate in Beirut was not alone inside the warehouse. Seventy-five years later, National Geographic revisits the elusive horror of Hiroshima. 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 … Though Jeffrey Lewis, an arms control expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, estimates itâs probably closer to 400 tons. Share on Facebook. The huge change in phase creates a shockwave.â. Ship carrying ammonium nitrate behind Beirut blast passed through Istanbul Nerdun Hacıoğlu - MOSCOW. "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. Ammonium nitrate is an industrial chemical which is used mainly as an agricultural fertiliser. âAll kinds of other materials probably ignited and burned,â says Beaudoin. 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. When something burns, it requires oxygenâthatâs why fire extinguishers can easily put out flames by smothering them. Approximately 60 percent of the ammonium nitrate produced in the U. S. is sold as a solid product. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula NH 4 NO 3. By contrast, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 had a yield of at least 13,000 tons of TNT. 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 … Ammonium nitrate, which is used in fertilizers and bomb making, is a salt made from ammonium and nitric acid, and it is highly explosive. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, although it does not form hydrates. Any carbon-rich fuelâpaper, cardboard, or even sugarâcan pair with ammonium nitrate to produce more intense energy. 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. To produce a solid product, the ammonium nitrate solution is concentrated in an evaporator or concentrator. 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. With such a powerful blast, ammonium nitrate has been used by armies around the world as an explosive. I was bloodied and dazed. 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. WASHINGTON: Ammonium nitrate, which Lebanese authorities have said was the cause of the Beirut blast, is an odorless crystalline substance commonly used … The blast created a 4.5-metre (15ft) wave. “If you look at the smoke that came from the blast it’s this kind of blood red colour. 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. World. 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. Indian Regulation For Ammonium Nitrate . “As I … âAmmonium nitrate does not degrade with time under normal storage conditions,â he says. Injuries surpassed more than 5,000; the blast destroyed 500 homes and the smoke from it billowed for days. All rights reserved. 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 … Moreover, the decomposition of ammonium nitrate can create byproducts known as nitrogen oxides, which are known to cause respiratory distress. The explosion on 4 August destroyed buildings across Beirut. The likely cause of the huge blast in Beirut on Tuesday appears to have been the highly reactive chemical ammonium nitrate. 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. On paper, ammonium nitrate is highly regulated in India. It is predominantly used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertilizer. 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. 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. Credit: Fadel Itani/NurPhoto/Getty . While the chemicals in the air should dissipate fairly quickly, lingering pollutants can cause problems later, for example if they acidify rain. Ammonium nitrate is used for both fertilizer and controlled blasting at mines and quarries in Canada and around the world. 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. • 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. What leveled Beirut on Tuesday sounds eerily similar to descriptions of a massive 1947 explosion in Texas City, Texas. Using math pioneered in the 1940s to infer the atomic bombâs yield, experts can analyze videos of a shockwave to get rough estimates of an explosionâs total energy and how much material blew up. 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 bombâs yield. Documents unearthed by Al Jazeera say the ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut aboard a Russian-owned cargo ship after the vessel experienced mechanical problems at sea. Measured using this method, onlookers estimated the blast was roughly equivalent to 400 to 3,000 tons of TNT, an explosive material thatâs also used as a unit to measure the destructiveness of explosions. It is also one of the main components in mining explosives. It remains unclear what caused the chemical to ignite. Cell phone videos also show the shockwave and dust cloud rushing through the portside buildings, leaving behind scenes of carnage in the Lebanese capital. The blast filled Beirutâs air with particulate matter, one of the most common forms of air pollution. While ammonium nitrate can in fact put out a fire, if the chemical itself is contaminated, for example with oil, it becomes highly explosive. 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. But David Chavez, an explosives scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, doubts that scenario. Given the reported amount, Oxley hypothesizes that a vehicle must have been used to carry the compound inside, and that could have contaminated it with oil or gasoline. 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. “You need extreme circumstances to set off an explosion,” he said. 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. âIt will oxidize that fuel very rapidly, create a huge amount of gas, and give off a huge amount of heat. The majority of those killed were firefighters, including at least one teenager. Beirut explosion: Tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at blast site. 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. An explosion of ammonium nitrate was responsible for the worst industrial accident in US history in 1947. It is a white crystalline solid consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. 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. What detonated the explosive compound remains unclearâbut the Beirut blast is not the first time ammonium nitrate has led to calamity. Though ammonium nitrate was first synthesized in 1659 by German chemist Johann Rudolf Glauber, it wasnât used in explosives until World War I, when weapon makers mixed it with TNT (aka dynamite) to make cheaper bombs. There are also longer-term effects to consider. 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. Chinese authorities later claimed the first explosion had been triggered when the summer heat caused a highly flammable compound called nitrocellulose to spontaneously ignite. Ammonium nitrate would only explode on its own if its temperature was rapidly raised to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The August 4 blast that left more than 190 dead was caused by 2,750 tons of the volatile ammonium nitrate that caught fire. But for the compound to figure in an explosion of this magnitude, chemists and explosives experts say a lot has to go wrong. Itâs known to predispose people to the worst effects of respiratory diseases, including COVID-19. 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. Ammonium Nitrate, Which Caused Beirut Blast, Has a Bloodied Past With Several Industrial Accidents. 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. All rights reserved. By comparing the blastâs 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. âItâs relatively difficult to make pure ammonium nitrate go off unless you add things to it and cook it in a giant fire,â says Davin Piercey, a chemist at Purdue University. Two days later, the death toll rose to at least 130 people with another 5,000 injured. 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. 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. But the compound can contribute to explosions because it belongs to a chemical class known as oxidizers. 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. A wounded woman is evacuated after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. Nature. August 10, 2020 by admin 0 Comments. 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. However, da Silva said, it ignites only under the right circumstances, and these are difficult to achieve. That’s because of the nitrogen oxide air pollutants in it,” he said. Since 1916, the chemical has been responsible for at least 30 disasters, some accidental and some intentional. 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. Oxidizers do the opposite: They increase the amount of oxygen molecules that concentrate in a space, which helps make other substances more flammable. Even a small amount of contamination would have made the ammonium nitrate more likely to detonate. 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. 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. Why Beirut’s ammonium nitrate blast was so devastating. A large explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on August 4. The more ammonium nitrate… © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- Ammonium nitrate is formed when ammonia gas is combined with liquid nitric acid. 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. “I think that’s what’s happened here,” said da Silva. Last modified on Thu 13 Aug 2020 11.31 EDT. Lebanon was already dealing with political and financial woes, due in part to the Syrian migration crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. All ammonium nitrate plants produce an aqueous ammonium nitrate solution through the reaction of ammonia and nitric acid in a neutralizer. Ammonium nitrate is a common industrial chemical used mainly for fertiliser because it is a good source of nitrogen for plants. âPlastics, for example, paint, and other organic materials that completely or partially burnedâall the building materials that became dust.â, The deadly history of ammonium nitrate, the explosive linked to the Beirut blast, Photograph by Anwar AMRO, AFP via Getty Images. Piling up large amounts of ammonium nitrate allows more heat to be contained for longer when a mixture burns. The chemicals reportedly have been sitting by the docks since 2013. Blast calculations suggest that at sea level, an explosion like Beirutâs would require about 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate. âThereâs a massive amount of energy given off very quickly,â says Stephen Beaudoin, a chemical engineer also at Purdue University. 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. Such was the force of the Tianjin explosions that they registered as small earthquakes. Fenianos, caretaker PM Hassan Diab and ex-ministers Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zoaiter have recently been charged with negligence … 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 nitrateâmore than 20 million tons in 2017. Other health issues, akin to those seen after 9/11, may emerge given the widespread destruction to buildings and roads. The ensuing explosion killed some 600 people, including everyone on the dock and ship. Such investigations may take time. 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. 4 Aug, 2020 10:56 PM Quick Read. The deadly explosion in Beirut has been blamed on thousands of tonnes of the chemical used in fertilisers and explosives, Tue 4 Aug 2020 21.59 EDT Beirut strangers treated me like a … Compared to most combustible materials, ammonium nitrate itself is not exceptionally explosive. Then, as now, witnesses filmed apocalyptic, almost surreal footage showing the scale of the inferno. The blast registered as magnitude 3.3 on the Richter scale, and caused devastation usually associated with major earthquakes. 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