Reginald Cousins said:

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Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Wonder of this was bigger or smaller than the Texas City and Halifax, NS explosions.

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Saw elsewhere that TC was 2200 tons, this was 2750 tonnes.

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Reportedly from the Lebanese government that it was 2,750. Some question remains whether that warehouse could actually hold that much or if there was close to that much because of older pictures. The warehouse didn't seem that full in those pictures.

2750 tons is about 125-130 fully loaded trailer truck loads ..

The Oklahoma City bombing was less than 3.5 tons for comparison....

aggiehawg said:

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Here's another very long article describing the various explosions (3) that occurred in Beirut. Also has a lot of the political structure and power levers in Lebanon.

First mini explosion and fire was in Hanger 9. After the second small explosion it moved on to Hangar 12. Those were the two closest warehouses to the port, as in prime real estate for quick and easy unloading and loading. Why Hangar 12 would have been monopolized for so many years couldn't happen without the port authority's knowledge.

Two other things of note. According to this author, the ammonium nitrate was weapons grade, not fertilizer grade. Further Turkish officials were not going to allow the ship Rhosus to traverse the Bosphorous but Erdogan personally intervened to give passage.

Interesting read. Enjoy.

LINK

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That's interesting. I remember reading that some AN was capable of north of .5 REF.

I got to play with AN fairly extensively on Uncle Sam's dime but the stuff we used ranged from .32 to .42. which is your typical AG purpose type. And got very impressive results with that level. Extremely versatile when mixed with certain products. Poor man's C4. It's why it is a favorite with with terrorist orgs everywhere and has been for generations. Even the Irish loved it during the Troubles.

Corruption by so many leaders lead to this disaster. I hope somehow enough decent and honest people can somehow gain control of the critical positions in their government.

Influence by Hezbollah and Iran has to be eliminated first, or the new decent, honest leadership will just end up being intimidated or bought off like the previous regime, too.

Military control? More likely Hezbollah.

will25u said:

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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12361325/lebanon-corrupt-government-explosion-beirut-resigns/

Eliminatus said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Here's another very long article describing the various explosions (3) that occurred in Beirut. Also has a lot of the political structure and power levers in Lebanon.

First mini explosion and fire was in Hanger 9. After the second small explosion it moved on to Hangar 12. Those were the two closest warehouses to the port, as in prime real estate for quick and easy unloading and loading. Why Hangar 12 would have been monopolized for so many years couldn't happen without the port authority's knowledge.

Two other things of note. According to this author, the ammonium nitrate was weapons grade, not fertilizer grade. Further Turkish officials were not going to allow the ship Rhosus to traverse the Bosphorous but Erdogan personally intervened to give passage.

Interesting read. Enjoy.

LINK

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That's interesting. I remember reading that some AN was capable of north of .5 REF.

I got to play with AN fairly extensively on Uncle Sam's dime but the stuff we used ranged from .32 to .42. which is your typical AG purpose type. And got very impressive results with that level. Extremely versatile when mixed with certain products. Poor man's C4. It's why it is a favorite with with terrorist orgs everywhere and has been for generations. Even the Irish loved it during the Troubles.

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hey Eliminatus, when you got to play with AN on Uncle Sam's dime, were you a combat engineer or were you EOD?

Pinche Abogado said:

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will25u said:

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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12361325/lebanon-corrupt-government-explosion-beirut-resigns/

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Hold onto your butts.

I'm not a commodities expert by any means. Curious if those more educated care to speculate on what corn/wheat/rice, etc. do with the Lebanese now needing significant imports to ward off massive food shortages and the flooding in China?

Simplistic view is to stock up on those goods before prices spike.

I don't think it does anything on a world wide scale. The loss of the grains in that elevator, while significant for that immediate area is a drop in the bucket for world wide supplies. There are thousands of grain elevators that size or larger around the globe. They can import more grains and store them via barge till a new facility is built.

Now the flooding in China in their farming bread basket is another story. A loss of harvest for a year there can and will effect world wide stocks of commodities. Depends on how much China has in storage and how much of their stores are edible. China stores tons of grains but looses a higher percentage than most due to spoilage from ineptness.

You don't have to be educated to see that nearby KC wheat is continuing to decline.

Lebanon is under 7 million people. Hardly a blip on the world market of 7.8 billion.

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Now the flooding in China in their farming bread basket is another story.

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What is for sure is that whatever reports do come out of there are fairy tales.

Neither. I was an assaultman. I don't think the Army has an equivalency. We specialized in breaching and "expedient" demolitions at the infantry squad level. Homemade bang. We learned how to use all the cool purpose made stuff and then how to make it all from scratch with random chemicals and junk. Everything from door poppers to claymores to cratering charges to shaped charges. I swear at times I felt like I was a jihadi myself. AN was very prevalent in most of that.

Global Wheat consumption is 752 MILLION METRIC TONS

Those Silo's held up to 120,000 tons but had only 15,000 tons at the time from a report i saw. Metric or regular tons I'm not sure. But either way that's an incredibly small fraction of the worlds wheat.

The US could give them 15,000 tons or 120,000 tons and we would never miss it.

The US alone makes almost 50MMT and uses only 30MMT domestically. We have an excess of 20MMT.

July wheat report.

https://www.uswheat.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SD-200710-40th-2.pdf

Moscow Times with an interesting take.

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Cypriot police said Thursday they had questioned a Russian over alleged links to a ship and its cargo of ammonium nitrate said to have caused the devastating explosion in Beirut.

"Lebanese authorities asked us to locate the individual and ask him some questions which we did," a Cypriot police spokesman told AFP. "His response has been sent back to Lebanon."

The police spokesman said Igor Grechushkin was not arrested, but asked specific questions relating to the ship's cargo as requested via Interpol Lebanon.

"We have done what was requested from us," the official said.

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In 2013, around 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came into Lebanon on board the Rhosus ship, sailing from Georgia and reportedly bound for Mozambique, a Lebanese security official told AFP, asking not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.

Grechushkin had leased the ship, which docked at Beirut port with a small hole in its hull, The New York Times and other media have reported.

Marine Traffic, a ship tracking platform, said the Moldova-flagged vessel first arrived in Beirut's port, the country's busiest, on Nov. 20, 2013 and never left.

According to Lebanese law firm Baroudi & Associates, which represented the vessel's crew, the Rhosus ship had faced "technical problems."

Several security officials told AFP that it temporarily docked at the port but was later seized by authorities following a lawsuit filed by a Lebanese company against the shipowner.

Port authorities unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in a rundown port warehouse with cracks in its walls, and the ship sank sometime later because of damage, the officials said.

The warehouse started to exude a strange odor, which led security forces to launch a 2019 investigation that concluded that the "dangerous" chemicals needed to be removed from the premises.

The agency also noted the walls of the warehouse were unsound, urging the port authorities to repair them.

It was not until this week that workers were dispatched and began repair works, in what might have possibly triggered the blast

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Back to welding accident again?

LINK

Does anyone know how common it is for this amount of ammonium nitrate to be shipped around the world?

CavitationAG said:

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Does anyone know how common it is for this amount of ammonium nitrate to be shipped around the world?

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From what I've gathered, very common. Its used worldwide as a fertilizer ingredient.

rally-cap said:

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CavitationAG said:

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Does anyone know how common it is for this amount of ammonium nitrate to be shipped around the world?

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From what I've gathered, very common. Its used worldwide as a fertilizer ingredient.

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Appreciate that.

MidTnAg said:

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Corruption by so many leaders lead to this disaster. I hope somehow enough decent and honest people can somehow gain control of the critical positions in their government.

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Tough to say what happens. Part of the problem is the basis of their constitution which is essentially STILL the post WW1 "temporary" framework apportioning specific #s of government seats to specific ethnic/religious groups. It was designed to serve during a transition 100 years ago, and yet has never been replaced. So reality has become the anointed fiefs rule their fiefdoms and get rich. They need a true democracy - but then who wins? All terrorists? Peaceful muslims, some Christians? Democracy isn't the same thing as freedom. Even Hariri, who certainly got rich off gov't contracts, but then also appeared to be legitimately interested in rebuilding/modernizing after the civil war - got assassinated.

They need a new constitution, freedom of religion, and strong rule of law to prosper. Sound familiar?

Super slow mo of the blast.

https://www.newsflare.com/video/371810/unseen-footage-shows-moment-of-beirut-explosion-in-4k-slow-motion

Looks like you can see the camera shake as the seismic wave gets there before the over pressure. Thanks for sharing.

As I have said before... F*** Lebanon for being an Iranian puppet. Lay down with dogs, and such.

Hope they rot.

That's some impressive stuff

At 2:07 - 2:08 you can see that small ship in the harbor on the left side take the initial blast.

GAC06 said:

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You're saying that fires occur all over the world pretty much daily? Tell me more!

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Yep, looks normal:

TomFoolery said:

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Based on the picture I thought the wuhan one was sponsored by Waffle House for a second

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I said the exact same thing in another thread, lol

Whitetail said:

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GAC06 said:

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You're saying that fires occur all over the world pretty much daily? Tell me more!

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Yep, looks normal:

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Whoa, when you post it in picture form you can really see it!