Beirut Explosion

If the usual suspects are involved in this massive blast in Beirut, it could happen to trigger a backlash of an unexpected kind. Since the blast according to the above was equivalent to a 4.5 Magnitude earthquake (USGS says 3.3), it could stir or trigger the fault line that runs straight from Beirut and all through Israel. Something to perhaps watch out for in the weeks ahead.

Here is the faultline shown and as can be seen the distance is not far to Israel.
Lebanon Israel fault line 4th of August 2020.gif
 
This nuclear astrophysicist on reddit estimates the explosion was somewhere from a few hundred tons to a few kilotons TNT equivalent yield. (Others in comments are estimating around 1 kt.) Another estimate here (1.1 kt), and a collection of video angles.


That's a lot bigger than the Enschede fireworks disaster, which had an initial explosion of equivalent 800 kg followed by a secondary explosion of 4-5 tons. That explosion killed 23, injured around 1000, and destroyed 1900 buildings (10k residents were evacuated before the big explosion).


Also a lot bigger than the 2015 Tianjin explosions, the biggest of which was equivalent of 21 tons.

Some unverified stuff from Twitter:


Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon's General Directorate of General Security, reportedly said in a televised interview that the container that was the source of the initial fire and explosion contained confiscated “high explosive materials" and that it would be "naive to describe such an explosion as due to fireworks."

Head of General Security says the blast was caused by a fire in a depot of highly explosive material, including Sodium nitrate, at Beirut's port. He said that material was confiscated from a ship months ago and stored there. #Lebanon
— Dalal Mawadدلال معوض (@dalalmawad) August 4, 2020

Aoun also says it was nitrate in the warehouse:

21:11 GMT - 'Unacceptable' 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored without safety measures: Aoun
Aoun said that it is "unacceptable" that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored in a warehouse for six years without safety measures, according to statements published on the presidency's Twitter account.

Aoun also pledged that those responsible would face the "harshest punishments" and said a two-week state of emergency should be declared.
 
It must be a very sad day for the people in Beirut to have faced so much destruction from this explosion, and then the consequences for Lebanon, 🇱🇧 , can be still worse than the immediate number of injured people and damaged property.

One observation is the shortlived white cloud, followed by the black or brown column of smoke; below are screenshots of some pictures in the post by @DreamGod followed by a few comments. I reached the result it was a vapor cone, but why would it appear due to fireworks or gas?
1596571186898.png
There was this short one from a Tweet
1596571304019.png
1596571426768.png
Which compares with this a sonic boom cloud in this video:
1596570389634.png
The Wiki explains it as a vapor cone
A vapor cone, also known as shock collar or shock egg, is a visible cloud of condensed water that can sometimes form around an object moving at high speed through moist air, for example, an aircraft flying at transonic speeds. When the localized air pressure around the object drops, so does the air temperature. If the temperature drops below the saturation temperature, a cloud forms.
From the above one possible explanation of the white cloud that for a short moment forms could be: The object that is moving quickly seems to be the air that forms the shock wave. Behind the shockwave, the pressure drops for a moment as does the temperature. The moist air reaches the point of saturation for a moment, and as a result, the water vapour suspended in the air condenses until the pressure returns to normal.

I have looked at other gas explosions, and usually there is a ball of fire, this was not very clear here. Why? When one looks at vulcanic explosions, then there sometimes are vapor cones: In this video, of Volcano Eruption in Papua New Guinea there are signs of something similar to a vapor cone phenomenon at second 15-18. It looks in the video like a white cloud forming and dissipating. But is it nothing as clearly visible as what is seen in Beirut. This may be due to different atmospheric conditions, where the air in Beirut may have been closer to the point of saturation, but if at the moment it is around 79 %, and it is around midnight, but the relative humidity is higher at night, then at the time of the explosion, it could have been 70 %.

In a "Massive explosion at Ukraine ammunition depot forces evacuation" one can see a weak, irregularly formed, and shortlived vapor cone during a few frames of second 16. Notice also the very intense fireball. As in the explosion in Beirut, before the big explosions there were other explosions, only Beirut did not have that kind of fireball. Would it be possible for a stock of liquid gas, fireworks, or fertilizer to accidentally put so much power into one ultrashort explosion and produce a pattern similar to that in Beirut? In an
article, (Danish) a retired academic with a specialty in explosives said it would require at least eight cargo trains of highly explosive material. If so, why was it there, and why did it explode?
 
And here’s Trump’s initial take on it:

It would seem like it based on the explosion,” Trump said when asked whether the blast was the result of an attack.

I met with some of our great generals, they seem to feel this was not some kind of manufacturing explosion type of event.. they seem to think it was an attack, it was a bomb of some kind
 
My initial reaction is why are there so many excellent videos of the actual explosion?
Extensive fire was going on for some time before the explosion which attracted attention of many inhabitants in the city. One could speculate that even the fire was orchestrated to do just that (capture the attention) so the psychological effect of the explosion would have more devastating impact but at this stage, without more data, it's a wild speculation.
 
My initial reaction is why are there so many excellent videos of the actual explosion? Reminds me of the Da nci ng Is rae lis of 911 fame.

Well, technically nowedays there are much more cameras because of cellphones (there are good cellphones cameras now) compare to back then in the 9/11 event.
And also, people were already filming the fire that was happening right before the big explosion happened! BUT of course whoever did this (I think we know who could have done it 😏) was thinking on the coverage this would have as well, so everything could be connected in a indirect way.
 
Beirut's port is (was) the main hub in Lebanon's economy, which relies mainly on commerce. According to wikipedia, it's an important gateway for transporting freight to Syria, Jordan and Iraq. The economy was already struggling for some time, then came the covid nonsense. This explosion will probably deliver a fatal blow to country already in an unstable equilibrium.
 
Its a great speculation, but it seems to be more. The attention needed is to assure the message is delivered to all the world and some leaders.

Extensive fire was going on for some time before the explosion which attracted attention of many inhabitants in the city. One could speculate that even the fire was orchestrated to do just that (capture the attention) so the psychological effect of the explosion would have more devastating impact but at this stage, without more data, it's a wild speculation.
 
It is very strange, it remembers me to the Fertilizer plant explosion y Waco, Tx a few years ago due a comet fragment atracted by the plume.


Your comet mention gave me a tingle re: the ‘fireworks’ narrative - coincidentally dreamt this last night.




...baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what your worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
You're gonna leave 'em fallin' down down down...
 
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