[–] DeathRayDesigner ago
At night there is no illuminating sunlight, so it will be impossible to say anything definitive about the smoke. And the reddish coloration characteristic of ammonium nitrate explosions is nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas, which would only show color when illuminated. There was plenty of material flying through the air in Beirut, including a the warehouse and a crater's-worth of ground surface. The secondary explosions in Beirut presaged the main blast and were thought to be stored fireworks. Indeed, the Beirut explosion was more massive, which means there was less time for secondary phenomena to occur. (Blast effects tend to scale as the 2/3 power of the yield, so although the Chinese event had 29% of the yield as Beirut, it had 44% of the blast effect.)
[–] DirtyErnie ago
Osweda did a mostly-ok write-up on this. Fire and heat made the Iranian warheads do a very low-order deflagration, which was the cloud of brown smoke, and lack of damage compared to China.
If that would have been an actual detonation, there would have been a huge flash, even bigger shockwave, and a black cloud.
Might not agree with some of Osweda's conclusions, but the big picture, someone took out a huge pile of HezB's shit.
[–] dissembleu [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
That is what I am thinking. All the small detonations leading up to the large deflagration lead me to believe it was not ammonia nitrate and that this is a cover up of an illegal explosive stockpile or manufacturing warehouse. The fact that the Lebanese government knows and already has a cover story prepared, along with a backstory from 2014 tells how large and deep the illegal operation was.
[–] moderator99 ago (edited ago)
Not the same at all.
OKC bombing was claimed to be ANFO as well. It was proven then that ANFO can't do that sort of damage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=zxbf_o9nMog&feature=emb_title :
Tianjin Explosion China 2015 HD - YouTube
[–] Aslanisonthemove ago
The small flashes are similar to building demos.