Massive explosion rocks Lebanon’s capital city
Lebanon will observe an official period of mourning for three days after a massive explosion in the capital city of Beirut killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000.
The whole city was shaken by the blast, which began with a fire at the shipping port district.
A red cloud hung over the city in the wake of the explosion, which took place just after 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET).
Stunning video shows explosions just minutes ago at Beirut port pic.twitter.com/ZjltF0VcTr
— Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 (@borzou) August 4, 2020
Buildings were destroyed in the port district, with the shockwave shattering windows, overturning vehicles and blowing in doors across the city.
Other reports say that the explosion was heard and felt as far away as Cyprus, about 200 kilometres across the Mediterranean.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Hamad Hassan said that the death toll will likely increase and that four hospitals are out of service because of damage from the explosion.
The Lebanese Red Cross asked the public for blood donations to help the wounded. Triage centres and first aid stations were also opened to help those with non-critical injuries. While all its ambulances across the entire country were dispatched to the capital to support the rescue and evacuation of patients.
Triage and first aid stations have been set up to help people with non-critical injuries. pic.twitter.com/Cu5ZTtWI00
— Lebanese Red Cross (@RedCrossLebanon) August 4, 2020
Stored ammonium nitrate “blamed”
The likely cause of the explosion is being linked to the highly reactive chemical ammonium nitrate.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Hassan Diab, said that more than 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded after lying unsecured in a warehouse for six years.
However, experts say that under normal storage conditions and without very high heat, it is difficult to ignite ammonium nitrate.
“If you look at the video, you saw the black smoke, you saw the red smoke, that was an incomplete reaction,” said Jimmie Oxley, a chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island.
“You need extreme circumstances to set off an explosion,” according to Gabriel da Silva, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne
Ammonium nitrate is the ammonium salt derived from nitric acid, a corrosive substance which is toxic when inhaled. It is mainly used in fertilisers and explosives.
Explosion generated seismic waves like of a magnitude 3.3 quake
USGS data shows that the massive explosion created seismic waves equivalent of a magnitude 3.3 earthquake.
However, the magnitude 3.3 equivalent isn’t directly comparable to an earthquake of similar size according to Don Blakeman from the National Earthquake Information Center.
“The Beirut explosion, don’t produce as large magnitude as an earthquake of similar energy would. Not enough of the energy is transmitted into the rocks in the ground.”