Massive Explosion in China's Tinajin

bbc ^

[FreeAtlanta]

Footage circulating online appears to show a massive explosion in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, the cause of which is not yet known. The explosion reportedly occurred at the Tianjin Binhai New Development Zone at about 23:30 (15:30 GMT). Pictures and video footage shared on social media suggest a number of people were wounded by the blast. Several nearby tower blocks are without power, according to the Chine

[Theo]

Whew. Horrible.

http://video.weibo.com/show?fid=1034%3Adc65aafd8a97629626a8b7c27c9d38ff

[thackney]

BBC reporting this as Petrol Storage (gasoline)

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33896292

[Smokin' Joe]

Get it hot enough and the vapor pressure will rupture the container. That can take off spectacularly, even large cylindrical tanks will go like a rocket.

[Dead Corpse]

Wowsers...

[BenLurkin]

Interesting. Gasoline will boil if it gets hot enough (~400 degrees F)

I learned something today. Love FreeRepublic.

[thackney]

And now the same BBC link says a container of explosives.

[tcrlaf]

Twitter:

MSimonTV: Our reporter on scene says buildings are collapsed as far as 10km away from explosion site in #Tianjin.

[tcrlaf]

Twitter:

NEW DETAILS: Explosion happened at Tianjian Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd. It handles transport of hazardous goods

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks, thackney. Someone had mentioned an acetylene transfer facility there and mentioned acetone, too. I was just showing why the two would be together in such a mess, and why acetylene is particularly tricky to deal with.

If that wasn't involved, nevermind (it is still good to be aware of--acetylene is easier to ignite/explode than anything but hydrogen).

Gasoline will give results like that, too, and the streamers could well be ruptured drums blown into the air trailing fire.

[kingu]

/@Breaking3zeroUS #Tianjin Local media reports that buildings collapsed more than 10km away from the explosions pic.twitter.com/K5WTkVtU42— Brothers (2015 film) (@AshishCawnpore) August 12, 2015

[BenLurkin]

Ouch!

[Smokin' Joe]

Go figure. (Well, if you keep all that dangerous stuff in one area, you can get some spectacular results.)

[BenLurkin]

Hmmm....remember when the US was accused of hacking the computer controls at a Russian oil piline and it led to large scale destruction?

[thackney]

, if you keep all that dangerous stuff in one area, you can get some spectacular results

Yeah, and all too often it is an area where I work.

Have you ever seen the Houston Ship Channel?

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Thought I was looking at a small neighboorhood at first, but now I see that those are damn sky scrapers that that explosion is towering over.

[Rennes Templar]

Wow. I would think there would be high casualty numbers.

[Smokin' Joe]

Yep, but that was 30 years ago. I even had some of the house brew at Gilley’s one night when Jerry Lee Lewis was hammering the ivories.

[tcrlaf]

Twitter:

1st explosion registered as 2.3 magnitude earthquake (3 tons of TNT), 2nd was 2.9 magnitude, that’s equal to 21 tons of TNT

[BenLurkin]

Many firefighters likely killed.

[JoeProBono]