Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 255 posts

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#221

Post by lucretian »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #119
peteretep wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> help directly You could do much worse than donating to the Red Cross and selecting “Disaster Relief”, and if you want to take an action, call your representatives and let them know how important you’d find a robust USAID response. Neither are sexy options, but both will have an effect https://www.redcross.org/donate/D072002.html

That's the American Red Cross though, will the money go to Lebanon?

it will not. more direct resources:

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/beirut-explosions-l...

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#222

Post by agumonkey »

est31 wrote: post #212
agumonkey wrote: post #161

What are the pollution consequences of this (if any) ?

Dust pollution has turned out to be quite significant in the 9/11 aftermath, causing cancer in thousands of people. > As of August 2013, medical authorities concluded that 1,140 people who worked, lived, or studied in Lower Manhattan at the time of the attack have been diagnosed with cancer as a result of "exposure to toxins at Ground Zero". It has been reported that over 1,400 9/11 rescue workers who responded to th…

good point but beirut is not the same dust, for better or worse

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#223

Post by avh02 »

erk__ wrote: post #97
colordrops wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump is saying that military intelligence indicates that it's a bomb: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tPvH-CqH7Q8 Edit: why am I being downvoted. I am not agreeing with him or saying he is right. Just stating what was said. It seems noteworthy that the president of the US commented on it regardless of accuracy or trustworthiness.

Unnamed defence officials are contradicting it say they have no idea what he is talking about. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/04/politics/defense-official...

When I was trying to get as much information as I could (I'm a Lebanese abroad) I automatically mentally filtered out/skipped what trump was saying. Literally not worth the time. Anything officials say unofficially has more value to me.

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#224

Post by ximeng »

mzs wrote: post #218
kgm wrote: post #44

I am seeing other analyses that put the size of the explosion at about one tenth of this size. The analysis in this Twitter thread correlates the observed degree of damage with the distance from the explosion. It comes up with an estimated 240 tons TNT-equivalent, though naturally this comes with a considerable margin of error. https://twitter.com/GeorgeWHerbert/status/129071971954515968... This Twitter thread is mak…

an expert's thread from this morning: https://twitter.com/johnismay/status/1290858204788924416

https://mobile.twitter.com/johnismay/status/1291007795316297... think this is what you meant

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#225

Post by biscotti »

p1necone wrote: post #209
rendall wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is literally true that Trump said it was a military attack, as OP stated. This is verifiable. That Trump's statement is false and dangerously irresponsible is not OP's fault.

Generally other people's misinformation should not be shared without some kind of disclaimer that it isn't true

I agree with your sentiment. There are videos that appear to depict the main explosion resulting from a missile strike, the folk filming react to it as it enters the frame immediately prior to detonation.

It's wrong to classify something false with certainty when it is just conjecture and likely of a political nature at that.

https://twitter.com/imranarainppp/status/1290729309301350400...

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#226

Post by velox_io »

yxhuvud wrote: post #167
supernova87a wrote: post #109

The amount of material must have been ridiculous to store in such a place. The blast is staggering in size, almost like the Tianjin explosion a few years ago. Collected videos: Angle #1 https://streamable.com/xmmoa7 Angle #2 https://streamable.com/nscx9m Angle #3 https://streamable.com/zbjj5f Angle #4 https://streamable.com/saoafz Angle #5 https://streamable.com/4ga1vb Angle #6 https://streamable.com/lmivb2 Angle #7…

Roughly twice the amount exploded compared to Tianjin, actually. 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate compared to 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrates and 600 tonnes of potassium nitrate in Tianjin. So yes, quite ridiculous.

What strikes me as odd (aside from the massive shockwave), is how there were no fireballs, all other fertilizer fires have bright explosions. It's burnt rather than detonated. Here, all of the fertilizer ignited faster than the speed of sound (resulting in a virtually perfect spherical shockwave). Although the shockwave could have doused any flames, so that idea is plausible..

The other anomaly is the deep red smoke, that's something that seems unusual too (aside from storing so much fertilizer in such a built up area for so long). This is a disaster on so many levels, but then when is a disaster only caused by a single issue?

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#227

Post by WaxedLekku »

lma21 wrote: post #211
mekster wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good do you expect out of this mess? Like, some other location fixed their storage strategy to avoid same fate?

Change the whole governmental bodies. Build a new constitution. Hold new elections. Create a government that acts and builds, not one that talks and promises. Something that can lift this poor, small, desperate country out of its misery. I'm hoping for such changes...

Tear down and build a new state? Sounds like the recipe for a war

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#228

Post by mzs »

ximeng wrote: post #224
mzs wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

an expert's thread from this morning: https://twitter.com/johnismay/status/1290858204788924416

https://mobile.twitter.com/johnismay/status/1291007795316297... think this is what you meant

Yes, thanks for the correction!

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#229

Post by contravariant »

velox_io wrote: post #226
yxhuvud wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly twice the amount exploded compared to Tianjin, actually. 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate compared to 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrates and 600 tonnes of potassium nitrate in Tianjin. So yes, quite ridiculous.

What strikes me as odd (aside from the massive shockwave), is how there were no fireballs, all other fertilizer fires have bright explosions. It's burnt rather than detonated. Here, all of the fertilizer ignited faster than the speed of sound (resulting in a virtually perfect spherical shockwave). Although the shockwave could have doused any flames, so that idea is plausible.. The other anomaly is the deep red smoke,…

You're just not looking hard enough. The video used in this post has exactly 1 frame where the fireball is clearly visible [1]. I'm guessing the sheer scale just threw you off.

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/Nvb7lWJ.png

Re: Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT

#230

Post by speedgoose »

biscotti wrote: post #225
p1necone wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally other people's misinformation should not be shared without some kind of disclaimer that it isn't true

I agree with your sentiment. There are videos that appear to depict the main explosion resulting from a missile strike, the folk filming react to it as it enters the frame immediately prior to detonation. It's wrong to classify something false with certainty when it is just conjecture and likely of a political nature at that. https://twitter.com/imranarainppp/status/1290729309301350400...

If it looks like a bird and fly like a bird, perhaps it's a bird. But perhaps a missile strike, as the leader of the worst biggest power suggested.
Post reply on HN