'This is probably up there among the biggest non-nuclear explosions of all time.' BeirutBlasts BeirutExplosions
Ammonium nitrate is an industrial chemical commonly used in fertilisers and as an explosive for quarrying and mining.
"On a scale, this explosion is scaled down from a nuclear bomb rather than up from a conventional bomb," said Roland Alford, managing director of Alford Technologies, a British company that specialises in disposal of explosive ordnance.Experts have noted the colour of the smoke and"mushroom cloud" seen in footage of Tuesday's blast as characteristic of ammonium nitrate explosions.
These indicate that the gases released are white ammonium nitrate fumes, toxic, red/brown nitrous oxide and water," said Stewart Walker from the school of Forensic, Environmental and Analytical Chemistry at Flinders University.That tells me the oxygen balance was not correct - so it wasn’t mixed as an explosive," he said.
In 1947, a fire detonated around 2,300 tonnes of the chemical aboard a vessel in the US port of Texas City, causing a tidal wave. At least 567 people were killed and more than 5,000 injured.Ammonium nitrate stored at a Texas fertiliser plant detonated in an explosion that killed 14 and injured about 200 in 2013.
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