[AmericanMade1776]

I remember seeing that first photo when it was released, that is quite a fireball , kind if odd isn't it..then the peacock like smoke plumes coming off the fireball... very designed if you ask me.

[Smokin' Joe]

Save the pic, open it with WIndows picture and Fax viewer or whatever you have and zoom in.

Note the difference in pixellation between the buildings in the foreground and the sky and explosion, etc. I am not a photoshop geek, but maybe someone here could explain if that is 'kosher' (sorry, couldn't resist) or not.

[sine_nomine]

It's just too pretty.

[tortoise]

I remember seeing that first photo when it was released, that is quite a fireball , kind if odd isn't it..then the peacock like smoke plumes coming off the fireball... very designed if you ask me.

This is a big fire (like a fuel dump) redone to look like a Hollywood-esque explosion. The black smoke behind the "peacock" is the original smoke plume. It would take a really big ass bomb to have a prayer of driving the "peacock" contrails that high. But generally, even if they did hit a fuel dump or similar, first-order detonations don't look like this.

The big chunks of something flyin in the air on the upper left hand side suggest to me that someone took a picture of a (much smaller) mortar or artillery strike and composited it over a fuel depot fire.