A quiz question · medium
The 4 August 2020 explosion that destroyed central Beirut was caused by a substance that had been sitting in a port warehouse for six years. The substance was the same one that destroyed Texas City in 1947 and AZF Toulouse in 2001. What is it?
Approximately 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, impounded from the Moldovan-flagged MV *Rhosus* in 2013, had been sitting in Warehouse 12 of Beirut port. A fire at the warehouse on 4 August 2020 detonated it. The blast killed at least 218 people and was felt in Cyprus. The same chemical caused the Texas City disaster (16 April 1947, ~580 dead) and the AZF Toulouse explosion (21 September 2001, 31 dead — ten days after 9/11). Ammonium nitrate is normally stable; it detonates only under specific conditions of contamination, confinement, and heat.
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The Warehouse That Sat Burning for Six Years On 4 August 2020 the same chemical that destroyed Texas City in 1947 destroyed central Beirut. It had been quietly stored in a port warehouse for six years.
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