14 ms·
Satellite images of the Beirut explosion site – before and after
- ars 6y agoI'm actually surprised at how many buildings seem structurally basically still standing. Especially the granaries right next to the epicenter. Is it really that easy to build a building that can handle explosions like this?
- walrus01 6y agoThe warehouses that were obliterated entirely, if I had to guess they were steel truss with corrugated steel skins. One of the lowest cost ways to cover the largest area in square meters possible. Basically large versions of these steel truss horse barns, see interior photo: https://www.worldwidesteelbuildings.com/steel-buildings/horse-arenas/ https://www.worldwidesteelbuildings.com/steel-buildings/hors... https://www.metalbuildingoutlet.com/images/steelequestrianbuilding.jpg https://www.metalbuildingoutlet.com/images/steelequestrianbu...
- lhoff 6y agoI read somewhere that the way the harbour and the storage buildings where structured(probably not intentionally) directed a big part oft the blast downwards, hence the crater. Matches the Videos i've seen were the explosion was sharply going into the sky. Only the shockwave was horizontal.
- walrus01 6y agoPurely from a physics/explosives effectiveness standpoint, the destruction would have been much greater if it had occurred at 200-300m above ground level. This is one of the reasons why air drop freefall nuclear bombs (10-20 kiloton class) were designed with radar fuses to explode at a certain height above the target, and not at ground level. Except when intended to destroy a bunker. Because the explosion occurred at ground level at least some of its energy was directed into excavating a crater and not destructive shockwave traveling outwards.
- valuearb 6y agoAlso, IIRC air burst nuclear weapons produce less fallout.
- jabl 6y agoFor nuclear war planners, fallout is probably a feature.
- VLM 6y agoNot for theoretical defensive tactical use in Korea / Germany / Israel / similar
- dragontamer 6y agoTwo kinds of nuke classes: 1. Strategic -- The world is going to die nukes. These are big nukes on ICBMs. If the opponent launches a strategic nuke, you launch all of yours and kill them too. 2. Tactical -- Small nukes that you shoot at the opponent's army before sending in your troops. You're thinking of strategic nukes. But strategic nukes are far weaker if you have a dirty explosion: its probably better to have a more complete bomb. Tactical nukes absolutely must be clean, because your own troops are in the area.
- jabl 6y agoStrategic nukes are typically fission-fusion-fission devices with both more yield and more fallout than a cleaner fission-fusion design of the same weight.
- jabl 6y agoOne can think of an explosion causing a roughly spherical shockwave. For a ground level explosion there's a relatively narrow "band" of that shockwave that travels along the surface of the earth damaging buildings and other stuff, the rest is either directed upwards, or as you say, to create a crater (and a lot of the "cratering energy" will be reflected upwards towards the sky as well). A ground level explosion also means that nearby buildings and geography (hills etc.) shield things behind them, reducing the destructive effect. With an airburst you have a more even distribution of destructive energy over a larger area.
- jcranmer 6y agoOne of the videos, when you step it frame by frame, manages to capture a nearly spherical fireball [1]. The next frame seems to suggest (to my amateur eyes) that the tall grain silos is causing a bit of a reflection of the fireball. Other than the grain silos, though, there doesn't seem to be any other factors shaping the blast. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/i420ir/the_fireball_on_frame_one_beirut_explosion/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/i420ir/th...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rbanffy 6y agoReinforced walls, no windows, angled inwards in a truncated pyramid to deflect energy up. Maybe covering it with material that's expected to be blown away by an explosion is a good idea as well. If it's grassy it may even help to keep the building cool.
- dylan604 6y agoI doubt that when someone is designing a storage warehouse on a shipping pier that "deflecting explosion energy" is very high on the list. "How cheap can we cover the most square footage" (is square meterage a word) would be the #1 question.
- walrus01 6y agoAlso in an area where you don't have to design for roof snow loading, risk of tornadoes or hurricanes, warehouse structures on a concrete slab can be built at lower cost, with lighter gauge material and less structural reinforcement.
- account42 6y ago> is square meterage a word Square meters or (in cases like this where the unit is irrelevant) just "area".
- pfdietz 6y agoGrain silos may also be built to withstand internal dust explosions.
- jandrewrogers 6y agoGrain elevators (which that building is) can undergo fairly extreme loading so they are constructed from thick, steel-reinforced concrete. Depending on the details, the walls can be a substantial fraction of a meter in thickness. Additionally, there was tens of meters of standoff distance between the explosive and the grain elevators, which significantly reduces the peak stress it needs to endure. Due to the height of the grain column, they are designed to withstand enormous pressures induced by having extremely tall columns of grain concurrent with undergoing lateral stresses from typhoon/tornado velocity winds. While they are not designed to be resistant to the shock wave characteristic of large detonations per se, being built with so much reinforced concrete lends some of that property naturally.
- elihu 6y agoYeah, I'm surprised all the office or apartment buildings across the street seem to all be intact. Hope the people that were in those buildings are all right.
- lm28469 6y ago> Is it really that easy to build a building that can handle explosions like this? It's probably not that hard to have some sort of structural parts still standing but these things are as good as destroyed (even worse because now they'll have to setup a controlled demolition on a potentially unstable structure). A good 50% of the silos aren't there anymore, I guess the enormous amount of grain inside absorbed and dissipated a lot of the blast. They're basically the building equivalent of sandbags.
- coldcode 6y agoEven the famous building in Hiroshima survived being relatively close to the epicenter due to its construction.
- dragosmocrii 6y agoThat space where there's a hole in the port is probably where the explosion happened. Also looks like the two ships nearby got vaporized. Frightening sight
- jayd16 6y agoIt looks like one is moored around the corner and the smaller one is possibly that wreckage on shore north of its previous location. How that's possible I have no idea.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoThe ships might not have been there. It is interesting that the grain silo seems to have shielded a building further away but not directly behind the blast.
- sbergjohansen 6y agoNote that the before/after images were taken two months apart.
- Alupis 6y agoThe two images were taken about 2 months apart, so the same ships likely were not there. But still... that was a lot of energy released.
- lordnacho 6y agoMaybe someone who knows about how shipping works can explain why they thought it was a good idea to keep a huge amount of ammonium nitrate in the port? Why not keep the ship offshore somewhere, or in some harbour that isn't in a metropolis?
- colinmhayes 6y agoI think the ammonium nitrate was confiscated and customs put it in a warehouse thinking it would be moved asap. But then no one moved it.
- jborichevskiy 6y agoYep - the Wikipedia page has some more context: > Various customs officials had sent letters to judges requesting a resolution to the issue of the confiscated cargo, proposing that the ammonium nitrate either be exported, given to the Lebanese army, or sold to the private Lebanese Explosives Company.[e][14] Letters had been sent on 27 June and 5 December 2014, 6 May 2015, 20 May and 13 October 2016, and 27 October 2017.[14] One of the letters sent in 2016 noted that judges had not replied to previous requests, and "pleaded":[14] >> In view of the serious danger of keeping these goods in the hangar in unsuitable climatic conditions, we reaffirm our request to please request the marine agency to re-export these goods immediately to preserve the safety of the port and those working in it, or to look into agreeing to sell this amount https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosions#MV_Rhosus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosions#MV_Rhos...
- anonu 6y agoCorruption and incompetence beyond comprehension. Hopefully serves as a turning point for a new form of management in the country
- square_usual 6y agoI hope, but their economy is imploding and it's not a good time for Lebanon overall.
- kanobo 6y agoSo sad and devastating for those nearby, I hope lessons were learned and future occurrences prevented.
- walrus01 6y agoThe two smaller ships that are moored directly next to the warehouse... I wonder if they were there at the time of the explosion and are now in tiny steel shards scattered over a several km area, or if those moorage locations were vacant at the time.
- nradov 6y agoThe Orient Queen cruise ship was sunk by the blast with several people killed. https://gcaptain.com/beirut-blast-two-killed-on-orient-queen-cruise-ship-docked-near-explosion-ship-sinks/ https://gcaptain.com/beirut-blast-two-killed-on-orient-queen...
- jabl 6y agoInteresting that the two slightly larger ships beside the crater appear to be afloat.
- cr4ig_ 6y agoThe small ship with the orange deck appears to have been blown onto land (look above its docked location in the after picture). I saw a live feed from later in the evening after the blast and there was a ship in that approximate location that was on fire.
- lhoff 6y agoSeeing Videos from the blast yesterday left me speechless. This picture showes the destruction even better. Seeing pictures like the ones im that tweet gives me hope: https://twitter.com/Nadia_Hardman/status/1291044300923510784?s=19 https://twitter.com/Nadia_Hardman/status/1291044300923510784...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- iandanforth 6y agoHow is the tall building right next to the blast still standing?
- rbanffy 6y agoIt's a grain silo. It seems it was full. In any case, the cylindrical walls should withstand a lot of punishment before collapsing. It also seems the first row of siloes was destroyed.
- news_to_me 6y agoThose are grain silos, apparently: > Satellite images comparing the area before and after the explosion show the complete destruction of Beirut's port. The grain silos that were next to the site of the explosion are still partially upright, although it's believed that up to 85 percent of the country's grain stocks have been lost. (Lebanon imports 80 percent of its food supply, and Beirut normally handles 60 percent of the country's total imports.) https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/what-we-know-about-the-massive-chemical-explosion-in-beirut/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/what-we-know-about-t...
- jpxw 6y agoIt was mostly obliterated, the angle in this image shows the side which was least affected
- tomohawk 6y agoThose are grain silos, which are incredibly strong structures. You can see an image of the damage done to the silos here: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/up-to-300000-left-homeless-by-beirut-blast-governor https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/up-to-300000-...
- keenmaster 6y agoLebanon's economy is in the gutter, so they really needed that grain...what a sad situation.
- 6y ago
- op03 6y agoWhich building is the root of the blast? I can't tell. Looks like everything got leveled.
- Nacraile 6y agoI believe it's the one that is now a crater full of water, just north of the siloes.
- lhoff 6y agoProbably the one were there is only water now.
- eatingCake 6y agoYou'll notice one area that went from above sea level to below sea level.
- bitlevel 6y agoBottom middle of picture just above the silos - circular shape has been carved out of the dock. I note the ship across the harbour has been tipped over too.
- numpad0 6y agoDrag the white bar left to reveal it
- aaomidi 6y agoMeanwhile Reddit decided that today would be a good day to make /r/ShockwavePorn a trending subreddit. What would've their response been if this happened in a European country? Using the pain of thousands of people to push a "cool" subreddit is just bad taste.
- zzzzzzzza 6y agoprobably an algo making that decision
- aaomidi 6y agoNope, there has been multiple confirmations that reddit admins run the algo and curate which ones to make trending. It's how reddit stops obvious hate subreddits from hitting the trending page.
- aaron695 6y ago> What would've their response been if this happened in a European country? I think's it's human to initially dehumanise people who are different but what's sad is when you point it out people just double down and insist it's ok.
- Avtomatk 6y agoI always think reddit is full of immature kids, bored "IQ" teens and old idiots. Those "trends" (which do not exceed 50k people on average) include the 3 mentioned categories
- DenisM 6y ago> Lebanon's prime minister said an investigation would focus on an estimated 2,750 metric tons of the explosive ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse. > A security source said the explosive power of the stored ammonium nitrate was equivalent to at least 1,200 tonnes of TNT So we are basically looking at a 1kt nuke blast (minus the heat and fallout). Hiroshima nuke, for scale, was at 13–18kt.
- victoro0 6y agoWell, yes, though a nuke would not detonate at ground level which would make it more destructive for most purposes (apart from bunker destruction). Plus 1kt is very very small for a nuke.
- pedalpete 6y agoIs there any reason a nuke could not detonate at ground level? Or are you saying to inflict the most damage, you "would not/should not" detonate a nuke at ground level.
- nkrisc 6y agoThey would not detonate at ground level to maximize destructive potential. To contrast, the US actually has different bombs that penetrate into the ground before detonating in order to effectively destroy buried bunkers. For example, I believe the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki detonated at about 500m above the ground.
- nradov 6y agoSome nuclear bombs were specifically designed to detonate at ground level. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laydown_delivery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laydown_delivery
- catalogia 6y agoAlso these "backpack bombs": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Munition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Muni... > It was also intended that the munition could be used against targets in coastal and near-coastal locations. One person carrying the weapon package would parachute from an aircraft and place the device in a harbor or other strategic location that was accessible from the sea. Another parachutist without a weapon package would follow the first to provide support as needed. The two-man team would place the weapon package in the target location, set the timer, and swim out into the ocean, where they would be retrieved by a submarine or a high-speed surface water craft.
- valuearb 6y agoVery slick method for comparing two images, but maybe the UX is a little obscure. I have to admit I thought it was two images side by side, and wondered why they were different proportions, until I noticed the handle. The explosion is of course very similar to the 1947 Port Texas disaster (581 dead) But it also reminded me of the Halifax explosion of 1917 (2,000 dead). In Halifax, the train dispatcher on the pier stayed at his post to send one last message to keep the next passenger train from entering town. “Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys”
- angrais 6y agoIt's a standard UI design for comparing images on the web and is often used in online news websites when comparing "then" and "now" similar to the article
- rubyfan 6y agoit’s also commonly used in the insurance industry for before and after image compare for large scale catastrophe management.
- whatisthiseven 6y agoA little obscure? I have seen this same image comparison ux many times before And it was instantly recognizable. I would improve it for new users by having a little animation after load that "wiggles" the handle a bit to get the user's attention.
- dylan604 6y agoIt is common and intuitive, but the one thing that is unique is it is pretty much full frame. It is normally used on an image within the layout of the website. It took me a second to find the handle knowing it'd be there, but the sheer devastation kept my eye from finding it. The GP did not say it took them 20 minutes to find the handle obscure, but it does kind of get lost in the carnage.
- 6y ago
- supernova87a 6y agoThe ship on its side to the north of the blast -- I wonder what kind of damage was able to cause that? (i.e. the ship not be able to roll back upright? Seeing footage elsewhere, rolling even to the point of ~45-60 deg is not fatal to an oceangoing container ship) Windows blown out, then force of the overpressure rolling it on its side, then filling with water? Or unsecured load (being in port) shifting and sinking? Separately, about the chemicals -- at some point, over 6 years, doesn't someone just say, I'm moving this life threatening shit out of here, go ahead and arrest me? After the Tianjin disaster, wouldn't someone have thought of that, you would think?
- op03 6y agoyeah...was just wondering which port is ever going to seize and store chemicals like that now. Probably no one wanted to touch it and it just got stuck there.
- walrus01 6y agoNever underestimate the power of bureaucratic paralysis... From all news reports it's looking like the persons responsible for the port repeatedly pleaded with the Lebanese court authorities to get it out of there, and nothing was ever done. I honestly have no idea how admiralty law works in a Lebanese legal context. In the US or Canada if a ship is abandoned in port there's well defined legal mechanisms for the port authority to seize it and its cargo for unpaid fuel and moorage fees, and summon the owners to court to defend their asset.
- johlindenbaum 6y agoReminds me of the Halifax explosion 100 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion
- leeoniya 6y agodoes anyone know how long the fire was going before the initial explosions? like, how much time did people have to evacuate?
- supernova87a 6y agoEverything with a thin metal sheet roof = shredded like paper.
- consultutah 6y agoMy god! It made the buildings all lean the other way! /endsarcasm
- mar77i 6y agoTook me a second to realize what that was. Also thought the main street nearby went to a sag. Glad it was just optics.
- consultutah 6y agoTotally worth the downvotes ;)
- fnord77 6y agopretty easy to tell ground-zero from the big crater
- throw0101a 6y agoCNN has more before/after images from Plant Labs: * https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/world/satellite-images-beirut-explosion-before-after-trnd/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/world/satellite-images-beirut... Non-governmental access to near-real time satellite imagery is really interesting.
- yingw787 6y agoI donated some amount of money to this fund: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lebanon-relief https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lebanon-relief Hope it ends up helping those in need.
- mysterypie 6y agoThe source of the explosion is easy to identify by comparing it to these two videos[1][2]. You can see that a crescent-shaped area of the pier gets obliterated creating a water-filled crater in front of the silo (the building with 16 tall cylinders in a row). What's fascinating is that the flat buildings on the other side of the silo are obliterated as well. From the two videos below, it looks like the shockwave wraps around the silo and destroys stuff on the far side. [1] https://streamable.com/zg9oal https://streamable.com/zg9oal [2] https://streamable.com/zykkj6 https://streamable.com/zykkj6
- jameshart 6y agoThe source of the explosion is easy to identify by the enormous crater filled with seawater where the pier used to be.
- melonkidney 6y agoSeems like the silo acted as a lens for the shockwave. Related video from Steve Mould where he demonstrates this with a balloon and sound waves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLBmWF9Xo10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLBmWF9Xo10 [Edit: added correct link]
- re 6y ago[edit: parent comment has been fixed]
- melonkidney 6y agoYou're absolutely right, thanks. The joys of sharing via mobile...
- cbm-vic-20 6y agoTom Scott did a video about another acoustic lens: the "sound mirror" overlooking the English Channel that was intended to be an early warning against aircraft coming from the continent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04F5osXK4vw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04F5osXK4vw
- anonu 6y agoLebanon and the Lebanese are like the Phoenix... They will rise again. The story here is one of incompetence and corruption beyond comprehension. It's the culmination of years of angst amongst the population. I hope this is a turning point for a city that was once the Paris of the middle East.
- ArkVark 6y agoLebanon is increasingly a Muslim country - many of the Christians have left. In 1932 51% of the population was Christian, in 2017 only 40%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Lebanon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Lebanon Lebanon also has problems with cousin marriage - leading to lower IQ and birth defects in the next generation. 17% of Lebanese Christians and 30% of Lebanese Muslims marry their first cousins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_in_the_Middle_East https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_in_the_Middle_...
- schwartzworld 6y agoregarding your first point: what's your point? regarding your second point: how is any of this relevant?
- MontagFTB 6y agoIt’s interesting to note how much the grain silos changed the shape of the blast. The damage behind the silos is almost immediately reduced, even in this set of images.
- jansan 6y agoAnd it's amazing that parts of the silo are still standing considering how close it was to the explosion's epicenter.
- VLM 6y agoSee pictures from the American midwest where after a tornado sometimes the only thing left standing is water towers and grain silos. Something weird aerodynamically about upright tubes and vortex shedding or something like that.
- crocal 6y agoGrain silos are actually built to withstand explosions. I am not an expert but I was explained as a kid that stored grain can create static electricity discharges that can result in self-ignition.
- jansan 6y agoWow, after reading your comment I started digging a bit and found this video from 2014. Those small explosions in the grain elevator look very similar to the explosions that happened before the big one in Beirut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDLkMDJXl_0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDLkMDJXl_0 And a few more grain silo explosions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794raoRHCzs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794raoRHCzs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFc-JoJSJr0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFc-JoJSJr0 https://www.kplctv.com/story/38545088/video-captures-moments-after-grain-silo-explosion/ https://www.kplctv.com/story/38545088/video-captures-moments... Man, those things just love to explode. I didn't know that.
- addHocker 6y agoWe need full sized mobile hospitals on trains, that can move into any area of the world to provide emergency service at scale. Be it for a pandemic or something like this.
- bryanrasmussen 6y agoWhere does the ship all the way on the left in the after picture come from? I'm assuming it was moved there from somewhere, but if so it looks to me like there is an extra ship. (this isn't a paranoia thing I have difficulties understanding spatial relations so I assume all the ships were moved from various places by explosion but I just can't follow it)
- szarapka 6y agoPhotos are almost a month apart.
- bryanrasmussen 6y agoah I see I didn't notice the date above, I was scrolled down a bit :(
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- comprev 6y agoThat UX with a slider bar is popular on the BBC website.
- guykdm 6y agoIt's reasonable that they avoided auctioning the massive amounts of ammonium nitrate because it's useful for bombs (Hezbollah being the strongest force in the government). If that's the case, as the would be target of these bombs, I'm happy it blew up. I'm very sorry for innocent lives lost and for Lebanon in general. I wish they would wise up and join Israel in making the region livable.
- farseer 6y agoGlad to know the explosion pleased you. Israel is too busy plotting land siezures to make the region livable.
- guykdm 6y agoI said something more nuanced, but It's very natural not to want to be bombed. Israel is mostly busy being a normal livable country for all it's residents. unlike its neighbors.
- Someone 6y agoReading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate_disaster reminds me of how security-unconscious we used to be. July 1921: “workers tried to dislodge 30 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had aggregated (solidified into one mass) in two wagons. When mining explosives were used on this solid mass the wagons exploded” September 1921: “Another attempt at disaggregation of a fertilizer mix with industrial explosives caused the death of 561 people” April, 1942: “An attempt to disaggregate a pile of 150 tonnes of ammonium nitrate with industrial explosives killed 189 people“ Three different locations, but one would think they would have heard of those earlier blasts.
- userbinator 6y agoNews traveled much slower back then.
- dragontamer 6y agoA national radio system was in use by 1942. I don't think it was common in the 1920s however. There was the 30s + Depression era, which could have resulted in losing some knowledge by the 40s as workers shifted jobs.
- Someone 6y agoIt took 3 days for the result of the battle of Waterloo to reach London, but that was 1815. In 1912, Titanic had a radio telegraph, as did 3 ships that responded to its distress calls. In 1916 Shackleton’s polar expedition had a radio on Antarctica. I think this might have been important enough to make the news, and be communicated to those working with tons of this stuff.
- jgwil2 6y agoInteresting that most of the visible damage seems to be confined to the area west of the highway irrespective of distance from the epicenter - is that just because warehouses are constructed differently to the commercial/residential buildings of the downtown area?