Massive Explosion in Beirut.

[Puupi]

... What? That is a complete non-sequitur. It makes just as much sense if you reverse it "He didn't say it was accidental, thus deliberate".

That is just insane troll logic, you don't get to fill in the answer if he doesn't comment on the subject.

There are only two possibilities, either the fire was deliberate or accidental. In this particular case, there aren't other options so it's not non-sequitur. It's a yes/no question.

Again, what? You are the only one trying to force some sort of arbitrary conclusion here. Everyone else is saying to stick to the established facts, and don't speculate on anything unknown.

What have I speculated? The cause for the initial fire is not an established fact yet. It is speculation. Very likely to be true, but not an established fact.

[Easo]

Crazies on the internet are out in the force, because it "gotta be a nuke, mushroom clouddddd, duhhh..."
And of course the usual fingerpointing to Israel, while this almost guaranteed is and looks like the usual negligence+corruption.

I find it interesting that the large building right next to the warehouse and the explosion itself was not fully leveled. Good construction, I guess. Especially considering there is a crater in place of that warehouse...

[Thekri]

Crazies on the internet are out in the force, because it "gotta be a nuke, mushroom clouddddd, duhhh..."
And of course the usual fingerpointing to Israel, while this almost guaranteed is and looks like the usual negligence+corruption.

I find it interesting that the large building right next to the warehouse and the explosion itself was not fully leveled. Good construction, I guess. Especially considering there is a crater in place of that warehouse...

Well those warehouses are just steel frames covered in sheet metal. That sheet metal takes off like a kite the moment any sort of blast hits it, which is why the warehouses all vanished instantly. The crater is because the force of an explosion is most in the vertical plane, more so then the horizontal. So it is going to punch a few meters down, and a few hundred meters up.

The silo is probably steel and concrete construction, so it got the closer side blown off, but it is still standing. Exactly why it you look at pictures of Hiroshima, the few concrete buildings are still standing and looking mostly intact, while the wooden buildings just disappeared. A 1kt explosion is huge, but solidly built buildings actually stand up pretty well to blast.

As far as the crazies speculating... well, that is just going to be inevitable. Same as the people that were speculating the Notre Dame fire was Muslims and such. People are going to claim stupid shit, it is in our nature.

[Puupi]

Crazies on the internet are out in the force, because it "gotta be a nuke, mushroom clouddddd, duhhh..."
And of course the usual fingerpointing to Israel, while this almost guaranteed is and looks like the usual negligence+corruption.

But you have to acknowledge that if someone wanted to hurt Lebanon they would have realized that "hey guys, you know we don't have to drop a bomb on them, they actually have a huge fucking bomb in their capital, it has been sitting in a lousy warehouse for 6 years already, we just need to light it up"

Not completely out of the question. And who might have wanted to do that? Oh that's a long list in that region....

So I'd wait for a full investigation first before jumping on any wagon.

[Puupi]

As far as the crazies speculating... well, that is just going to be inevitable. Same as the people that were speculating the Notre Dame fire was Muslims and such. People are going to claim stupid shit, it is in our nature.

Just two weeks ago another cathedral in France was set on fire. It was arson by an asylum seeker.

It's not always just crazy talk.

[Thekri]

Btw if there was flour right next to this, doesn't flour also tend to explode pretty impressively in such conditions?

Anyway I know my country send a disaster response team and I expect everyone around here did the same. It's nice to see people working together in such circumstances.

It does explode impressively, but not under these conditions. Shouldn't be enough oxygen available after that pressure wave ripped open the silo, so any explosion would have been a secondary explosion a few seconds after the big one. As far as I can tell, that didn't happen.

I also don't think that was flour. I am not sure what was in the Silo, I haven't seen any reporting on it.

[Gaidax]

But you have to acknowledge that if someone wanted to hurt Lebanon they would have realized that "hey guys, you know we don't have to drop a bomb on them, they actually have a huge fucking bomb in their capital, it has been sitting in a lousy warehouse for 6 years already, we just need to light it up"

Not completely out of the question. And who might have wanted to do that? Oh that's a long list in that region....

So I'd wait for a full investigation first before jumping on any wagon.

Back in 2016 Hezbollah leader was all huffy and puffy about how they can hit Israeli city of Haifa port that had factories storing this kind substances and produce an explosion comparable to nuclear blast, he even went as far as saying this meant they had a nuclear weapon in their disposal.

This thing expedited the removal of said facilities with additional safety in-place meanwhile. So I guess we have to be thankful to that cunt for that one, last thing we need this shit setting off in Haifa. Too bad they did not look at what's going on in their own backyard. He still has a couple of years window for that one, though - moving all that shit is a challenge.


So yeah, if your run off the mill terrorist group can figure that one out, I'd imagine anyone could. This is still by far most likely a genuine accident, but it sure wasn't some secret that this shit can potentially happen. Authorities there knew that, for one.

[Queen of Hamsters]

The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. In this case, negligence and corruption allowing for dangerous storage in populated areas.

inb4 bUt It mUst HavE BeEn TeH JeWs Or TaH MUsLImS!!...

[Gaidax]

The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. In this case, negligence and corruption allowing for dangerous storage in populated areas.

inb4 bUt It mUst HavE BeEn TeH JeWs Or TaH MUsLImS!!...

Clearly it was a Shark of Mossad with a laxer beam attached to its head.

[s_bushido]

Just two weeks ago another cathedral in France was set on fire. It was arson by an asylum seeker.

It's not always just crazy talk.

It's going to be inconvenient to the "it's not just crazy talk" crowd when they find out that like 95% of Rwanda (the place that guy was from) is some flavor of Christian.

Sometimes a fire is just a fire (whether set deliberately or not), and not a nefarious scheme by THEM to destabilize the region and terrorize the populace.

[Mihalik]

I find it interesting that the large building right next to the warehouse and the explosion itself was not fully leveled. Good construction, I guess. Especially considering there is a crater in place of that warehouse...

The silo seems to be made of reinforced concrete. Reinforced concrete can take a shocking amount of beating. The building is still bust tho.

I'm more surprised by the two ships next to the harbor that are still intact/possibly afloat.

- - - Updated - - -

But you have to acknowledge that if someone wanted to hurt Lebanon they would have realized that "hey guys, you know we don't have to drop a bomb on them, they actually have a huge fucking bomb in their capital, it has been sitting in a lousy warehouse for 6 years already, we just need to light it up"

Not completely out of the question. And who might have wanted to do that? Oh that's a long list in that region....

So I'd wait for a full investigation first before jumping on any wagon.

Stop it. Hanlon's Razor. Never attribute to malice anything that can be adequately explained by stupidity.

[s_bushido]

I'm more surprised by the two ships next to the harbor that are still intact/possibly afloat.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I know next to nothing about physics, but my guess is that a lot of the energy they received was transferred to the water. Or into moving the ships...like with buildings built to resist earthquakes have parts that can move to absorb it.

[Muzjhath]

Yeah, I noticed that too. I know next to nothing about physics, but my guess is that a lot of the energy they received was transferred to the water.

Most of the energy. Ballpoint mind estimate from right now is that 80% of the energy went upwards, 15% downwards, with 5% outwards. Or rather. Ratios around those magnitudes.

Still tons of energy everywhere but not stuff that'll capsize a ship. It will wreck the windows and probably knock down masts and knock away lose stuff.

Edit: the force up and down (vertical) is equal. But the result wouldn't be

[Unholyground]

This is shitty as fuck, hope they all get the help they need.

[Thekri]

Oh I read a Reuters article that food security was compromised because they have wheat for less than a month of their needs.

Ah, that was the answer to what was in it. Wheat apparently. That makes sense, hadn't seen confirmation of it, thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

Most of the energy. Ballpoint mind estimate from right now is that 80% of the energy went upwards, 15% downwards, with 5% outwards. Or rather. Ratios around those magnitudes.

Still tons of energy everywhere but not stuff that'll capsize a ship. It will wreck the windows and probably knock down masts and knock away lose stuff.

Edit: the force up and down (vertical) is equal. But the result wouldn't be

The ship in the extreme upper right of the "After" picture on CNN looks capsized to me. I haven't heard anyone talking about it, but it seems to be some sort of passenger/touring craft that got hit by the wave generated from making that crater, and since it was shallow draft it rolled over.

Hydrodynamics is weird, it might flip one ship and leave another one just fine. The ships docked at the same pier had most of their hulls protected by the land, so the just shifted a little, but that little white ship took the full brunt of it and flipped.

Edit: Further down on that article it shows the capsized boat more clearly. There was nothing to absorb the blast between the warehouse and that ship, so although it was further away, it just got pulverized and flipped.

[Muzjhath]

Ah, that was the answer to what was in it. Wheat apparently. That makes sense, hadn't seen confirmation of it, thanks.

- - - Updated - - -



The ship in the extreme upper right of the "After" picture on CNN looks capsized to me. I haven't heard anyone talking about it, but it seems to be some sort of passenger/touring craft that got hit by the wave generated from making that crater, and since it was shallow draft it rolled over.

Hydrodynamics is weird, it might flip one ship and leave another one just fine. The ships docked at the same pier had most of their hulls protected by the land, so the just shifted a little, but that little white ship took the full brunt of it and flipped.

Edit: Further down on that article it shows the capsized boat more clearly. There was nothing to absorb the blast between the warehouse and that ship, so although it was further away, it just got pulverized and flipped.

Yeah,you're right. and hadn't seen those pictures. Had mostlyseen the four ships at the area and some smaller boats. My assumption there is that the force in the water pushed against the key it was against, since just powerful strange waves an ocean liner can probably handle. But as you said. Weird dynamics in fluids.

[Thekri]

Yeah,you're right. and hadn't seen those pictures. Had mostlyseen the four ships at the area and some smaller boats. My assumption there is that the force in the water pushed against the key it was against, since just powerful strange waves an ocean liner can probably handle. But as you said. Weird dynamics in fluids.

Yeah, perhaps someone else can explain them. I have some expertise in explosives, but my approach to fluid dynamics it to consider it all arcane magic. None of that shit makes sense to me.

[Puupi]

[Muzjhath]

Yeah, perhaps someone else can explain them. I have some expertise in explosives, but my approach to fluid dynamics it to consider it all arcane magic. None of that shit makes sense to me.

Yeah. Never got far into fluid dynamics before depression flunked me out of physics. But the training I got makes me thing that the forces of stuff would push away from the explosion. Then pressure builds between key and ship creating an edge that the keel can't hold against.
In air that is what I would assume happened. With a body mixed between two fluids with the denser one probably being responsible for almost all of the movement?
Anything goes

[noidentity]

This is the closest video I have seen of the explosion (note: they both lived).