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estimated 2,750 tons of the explosive ammonium nitrate had been stored at a warehouse in Beirut for six years.

Similar amount in a devastating explosion in Texas in 1947:

Texas City Disaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

Looks like there may have been some ammunition in one of those warehouses which detonated as one of the initial explosions, if this video is accurate. That might have set off the ammonium nitrate explosion later (bottom vid):

The shock wave in some of the Beirut clips is terrifying.
Look at the building as the shockwave advances. Hooooly shit.

Wow. The roof of that nearby building on the right, just blowing right off. Looks like a movie.

AMFO's usefulness as an explosive is it has a VERY high expansion rate, which causes a massive pressure wave in relation to the size of the explosive. That's why it's commonly used for mining. A few hundred pounds in holes drilled in rock, just shatters it like glass.

For a comparison, the Oklahoma City bombing was just 2 tons of AMFO. Beirut was over 2000 tons. However, it's likely it all didn't explode either. Real bombs are tightly packed to make sure it all ignites. They will likely find out that a large percentage was just blown into the air by the initial wave of the explosion, before it could detonate.

Nice photography. What a terrible memory for your wedding photos though.

What we know about the massive chemical explosion in Beirut

More Pictures here: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08 ... in-beirut/

This is from reddit so take it with a grain of salt. This picture claims to show the warehouse inside before the explosion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFa ... the_blast/

Yeah, saw that report, still unconfirmed, but if that's how it was stored then it's less than ideal.

Question: was it set off intentionally? What is used to ignite it or was it just ambient heat?

Beirut Ignored Public Warning There Was a Russian ‘Bomb’ at the Port
https://www.thedailybeast.com/beirut-ig ... t-the-port

Authorities were warned soon after a Russian ship brought in the ammonium nitrate that blew up Beirut’s port, but did nothing.

Apparently that stuff has been improperly stored in that warehouse since 2014. It was just waiting for someone to screw up and trigger it.

Theories are some improper welding was done in the warehouse, and started a fire. I know the stuff is normally stable, but it does have to be stored properly. It's supposed to be kept in dry air, or it will absorb moisture, which can make it unstable, and it becomes volatile if it's exposed to certain liquids like diesel fuel. There is also a "critical mass" issue. The more tightly it's packet, the more volatile it is. If it gets wet it clumps more tightly together.

The 1947 explosion in Texas was caused when the captain vented hot steam into the cargo holds containing ammonium nitrate, to try to extinguish a fire, which was probably the greatest and last stupid decision he ever made.

There's a slew of email and letters one reporter discovered, where the 3 successive managers of the port have been complaining to the Lebanese government that they didn't have the facilities to store it safely and asking for help with it. No one ever addressed the problem.

So yeah, the next time you hear someone complaining about excessive safety regulations in this country, point out this catastrophe. People do stupid things without oversight.

New satellite photos show the aftermath of Tuesday's massive, deadly explosion at the port of Beirut.