Posted on 06/08/2006 2:31:15 PM PDT by Pukin Dog
One of the least understood phenomena of a bomb blast is overpressure. Everything in the blast perimeter is subject to a sudden and profound increase in air pressure. This wave of blast overpressure declines rapidly the further it travels. A person 10 feet from a bomb blast will experience nine times the overpressure of a person 20 feet away. But it gets messy and unpredictable. A person who happens to be standing between the bomb and a strong wall is subjected to more blast effect because solid surfaces reflect the blast wave.
You, as you read this, are subjected to normal air pressure of 15 pounds per square inch, depending on how close you are to sea level. The rapidly expanding gases of the bomb push the air out of the way generating air pressures of as much as 700 tons per square inch in the immediate area. But even on the outer perimeters of the blast area overpressures can be deadly.
The human body contains two principal air-filled spaces -- the lungs and the nasal cavity and attached sinuses. A human subjected to a bomb blast wave instantly has hundreds and perhaps thousands psi of pressure pushing on these cavities. A mere 15 psi above normal is considered the threshold for possible lung injury, so imagine what happens to those near the epicenter of a bomb blast.
The chest caves in. The lungs inside it are compressed violently in on themselves -- so violently that the entire network of pulmonary vessels connecting them to the heart and the rest of the body are sheared off.
When the instant of blast overpressure passes, the lungs suddenly re-expand, like a crushed rubber ball rebounding in the hand of a strong man. But now they are filled with a huge volume of blood, blood that should be flowing to the heart and other parts of the body.
Blood that would normally return to the heart through the left ventrical has now overwhelmed the lungs. No blood in the left ventrical equals no blood in the heart equals no pulmonary output to the body. Blood pressure -- zero. The body is instantly starved.
Up above, in the skull, at the same instant, the overpressure works in another way. The nasal and sinus cavities implode. That part of the skull called the cribiform plate ruptures, snaps and may be thrust upward into the base of the brain.
So that's why you open all your windows when a tornado's coming!!!
Could someone photoshop a pig nose and ears on to this guy's face?
Thanks so much for this post, Dog. I certainly don't know anything about the effect of bomb blasts (except that they're really, really unpleasant) on the human body, and I now have some facts at my disposal.
:) Gotta love Anton Brown...
Apparently..per FOX..we had plastic surgeons ON THE SCENE within moments of the strike..to make him presentable..
He got up all right! Way up!
So basically dismemberment would come from flying debris or the body hitting something that could cause dismemberment, correct?
I haven't looked at the photos in extreme detail but a cursory looks reveals the concrete block walls were blown outward and the entire roof slab collapsed downward.
There was a good bit of stuff carried outward with the blast and mixed up in the concrete wall debris.
There was also a tangled mass of rebar that some how shed the concrete around it. Bad concrete that just fragmented into gravel or dust. That may have been at the point of impact. There was also a mangled truck shown. That may be another point of impact.
The photographers always zoom in on important points that never get described by the producers at home. The slab, the rebar and the truck were all repeatedly photographed as important..
The house, and all inside it, was wiped out. However, Jordanian sources last night said Zarqawi did not die instantly. Though mortally wounded, he was alive when Iraqi and US troops arrived on the scene.
That was after two bombs. Sounds like he had time to think about it a little. Kinda makes ya warm all over...
A sinus headache you never wake up from.
Dang, I love those guys! "The Lone Gunman." Awesome.
Furthermore, none of these terrorists are covered by the Geneva Conventions -- for anything, ever. They don't wear a uniform; so they're not covered.
I hope he got to see his intestines.
I just realized that I was sort of fantasizing that that 500lb bomb fell right on his head.
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