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Explosions in Tianjin, China

Mike! said:
E-freaking-gad, it looks like it was nuked. After watching the videos of the blasts, with giant hunks of flaming debris falling from the sky, you have to ask, what the heck exploded with such an unimaginable force?
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FAE, Fuel-Air Explosive, that kind of thing probably happened here. A gas leak, a spark, go boom.

Accident or terrorism, the pundits will be babbling today.
 
Wolfman said:
...Then a larger explosion (which reports are saying was equivalent to 21 tons of TNT)...
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This is the energy equivalent of the seismic event - number attributed to the Chinese geological service. Generally, surface blasts don't communicate well into the ground. I have no doubt that the magnitude of the total energy released by that explosion was considerably larger - perhaps by as much as an order of magnitude.
 
The news this morning indicates damaged buildings up to a mile away. That's pretty close in energy to a small nuke, I'd think. This would rank up there with that big rocket-fuel blast in Nevada....But this was right in the middle of a city.
 
Bikewer said:
The news this morning indicates damaged buildings up to a mile away. That's pretty close in energy to a small nuke, I'd think. This would rank up there with that big rocket-fuel blast in Nevada....But this was right in the middle of a city.
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I'd say, using Mk one eyeball systems, that this one was rather bigger than the Henderson blast. Wiki says "The yield of this first detonation was estimated to be between 17 and 41 kg TNT equivalent.[5]" so this would be around the low end of that estimate. Wiki also says the Richter numbers were up to 3.5. Do we have a number for this one yet?
 
NoahFence said:
Let the free market take care of this. Who needs regulations?
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The mass murderer was 50 years of communism. Health and wealth are now skyrocketing thanks to freedom and it's natural corollary, capitalism.

The shameful truth is capitalism, with its worst warts, is better than a massive command and control economy...if keeping people alive is your goal.

What you don't get to do is be wreckless or destructive with things that don't belong to you. Those are fitting laws for democracy to weigh with value judgement, but one should always keep in mind the benefits vs. costs, as continuing advancement trivially outweighs regulations slowing the economy...if saving lives is your goal.

Many more live in rude capitalism with 2015 tech than sweet social state with 1980 tech.
 
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Beerina said:
The mass murderer was 50 years of communism. Health and wealth are now skyrocketing thanks to freedom and it's natural corollary, capitalism.

The shameful truth is capitalism, with its worst warts, is better than a massive command and control economy...if keeping people alive is your goal.

What you don't get to do is be wreckless or destructive with things that don't belong to you. Those are fitting laws for democracy to weigh with value judgement, but one should always keep in mind the benefits vs. costs.
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Yup, that's the lesson I always taught my kids. You can be bad as long as there are kids that are worse.
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
I'd say, using Mk one eyeball systems, that this one was rather bigger than the Henderson blast. Wiki says "The yield of this first detonation was estimated to be between 17 and 41 kg TNT equivalent.[5]" so this would be around the low end of that estimate. Wiki also says the Richter numbers were up to 3.5. Do we have a number for this one yet?
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Ahem ... Wiki has kg's of TNT equivalent at Henderson, but the Tianjin event is said to be tons of TNT equivalent seismic energy! Factor x1,000!

Henderson was estimated to have had 4,500 metric tons of AP stored on the premises, and an estimated total explosive yield of 1,000 tons of TNT; most appears to have burned rather than detonated.

Now again, as I said earlier, a seismic event of 21 tons of TNT probably gives us a lower bound of the actual explosive yield, which may however be MUCH larger, as surface explosions don't communicate well into to the ground - most of the blast energy goes into the air and/or hurls stuff around that isn't really picked up by the seismic station.
For starters, I suggest a factor of at leasz x10. That's of course using my amateur brain unecumbered by any actual experience or training with explosives and/or seismic equipment.
 
Good, but boring idea! Speculation is so much less fun when you already have all the facts :D
 
Oystein said:
Good, but boring idea! Speculation is so much less fun when you already have all the facts Because Internet! :D
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Oystein said:
Ahem ... Wiki has kg's of TNT equivalent at Henderson, but the Tianjin event is said to be tons of TNT equivalent seismic energy! Factor x1,000!
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Not sure how to interpret this statement, as you're implying the Hendetson blast was rather small. These figures are only for the first explosion. 17-45kg of TNT isn't much (only around 100 lbs, and a simple satchel charge is 40lbs). The net explosion total was around 1,000 tons.
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
FAE, Fuel-Air Explosive, that kind of thing probably happened here. A gas leak, a spark, go boom.

Accident or terrorism, the pundits will be babbling today.
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Probably more likely a BLEVE than a FAE, but similar mechanism. BLEVEs are more destructive.
 
Ziggurat said:
That doesn't look residential, and the explosion was at night, so it probably didn't.
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I believe those buildings are apartment blocks. I saw an aerial photograph map on CNN that had the car lot immediately south of the explosion site, and harbour workers' apartment accommodation immediately south of the car lot. However the fire was well underway before the explosions so here's hoping they managed to evacuate promptly.
 
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