Post: #1

Huge explosion in Tianjin, China. No deathtoll yet, but I imagine it's gonna be pretty high. The shockwave is freaking ridiculous.














CNN is reporting 7 dead so far, but if China is anything close to as crowded and structurally unsound as I remember it being, this is a major disaster.


China Daily is reporting:

Quote:TIANJIN -- Seven people have been confirmed dead and at least another 180 injured in Tianjin warehouse blast.
An explosion ripped through a warehouse storing "dangerous goods" in north China's Tianjin City late Wednesday night, injuring at least 50 people.

The blast started at around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Binhai New Area. The fireballs erupted from it then ignited further explosions in companies nearby.

The shockwaves were felt kilometers away, with some residents claiming their window glass and fish tanks shattered. People in neighborhoods nearby said flames lit up the sky and the blasts with big noises blew up dust of dozens of meters high.

Lu Yun, head of the nearby Taida Hospital, said they have received more than 50 wounded people, and more are coming. The injuries were mainly from broken glass or stones. Some of the injuries are serious.

Post: #2

Holy shit that's wild. Hopefully there aren't many deaths from this.

Sounds like an accident in the warehouse led to this, scary shit.

Post: #3

The Guardian reports 13 confirmed deaths and up to 400 wounded.

Quote:The first blast was equal in strength to the detonation of three tons of TNT, while the second was the equivalent of 21 tons of the explosive, the China Earthquake Networks Centre said. The explosions, which took place within 30 seconds, were so strong that they registered at a nearby earthquake monitoring centre, the official People’s Daily reported on Twitter. The US Geological Survey registered a series of seismological actions at a seismometer station in Beijing, which is more than 160km from the blast.

Post: #4

Chem factory accident? either that, or a depot filled with highly inflamable stuff. Of course, the death toll will be higher than of the Chinese govt report.

Post: #5

Damn. That's a fucking explosion. That second blast was huge. I hope the death count is low, but that looked like a pretty big blast radius to me.

Post: #6

It's a petrochemical industry port.

The blast is ridiculous. I thought perhaps everything within 500m destroyed instantly, but some people on twitter are saying pretty much everything within 1K is ruined.

Edit: Chinese state media often also underestimates casualties, so hundreds of injuries probably means hundreds of deaths.

Post: #7

Damn that's a crazy blast, and that second one was even bigger. I'm afraid the death toll may actually be in the hundreds.

Post: #8

At first I thought it was typical chinese fireworks but it seems to be a port and possibly explosives in close proximity to chemicals of an explosive nature. China doesn't give a shit about Health & Safety.

Imagine what a nuke would feel like.

Post: #9

(08-12-2015 05:39 PM)Mekorig Wrote:  Chem factory accident? either that, or a depot filled with highly inflamable stuff. Of course, the death toll will be higher than of the Chinese govt report.

I don't think flammable material does that. It's more like explosive material. Namely a mixture that contains both 'fuel' and 'oxidizer'.

Post: #10

(08-12-2015 05:01 PM)Osiris Wrote:  

The guy that filmed this one is dead. Apparently he was live-streaming through WeChat.

Play the video at .25x speed and you can see the fences and buildings in front of him get torn apart by the shock-wave.

Post: #11

(08-12-2015 06:05 PM)iop890 Wrote:  

(08-12-2015 05:01 PM)Osiris Wrote:  

The guy that filmed this one is dead. Apparently he was live-streaming through WeChat.

Play the video at .25x speed and you can see the fences and buildings in front of him get torn apart by the shock-wave.

Confirmed dead, or?

Post: #12

Well I'm lucky I guess. 48 hours ago I was in Binhai. Lots of factories out there but not necessarily a densely populated area.

Post: #13

The Chinese government caps all death reports at 33. It's SOP censorship from the government, if you Google '33 dead' you'll get thousands of results, most of them coming out of China. So if their news puts the death toll at 33 be assured its much higher

Post: #14

Ho Lee Fuk

Post: #15

Post: #16

Is Suits okay?

Post: #17

News is saying local earthquake tracking indicated the first blast equivalent to 3 tons of TNT, 2nd blast was equal to 21 tons.

Post: #18

NYT reporting

Quote:The police in Tianjin said the explosion took place at a warehouse owned by Rui Hai International Logistics, a private company that was licensed to handle hazardous cargo. According to People’s Daily, the company’s top official was detained for questioning. Company officials could not immediately be reached early Thursday.

Early reports suggested that firefighters had responded to a blaze about 40 minutes before the first explosion; according to the Beijing News, at least three of the dead were firefighters and a half-dozen fire trucks were destroyed. But on Thursday, People’s Daily reported that 11 firefighters had been killed, though it was not immediately clear whether those 11 were among the 17 people confirmed dead.

Post: #19

(08-12-2015 08:40 PM)Tex Wrote:  Is Suits okay?

Suits is OK. I live at least 200km from where the blast took place.

Post: #20

(08-12-2015 11:35 PM)Suits Wrote:  

(08-12-2015 08:40 PM)Tex Wrote:  Is Suits okay?

Suits is OK. I live at least 200km from where the blast took place.

Good to hear.

Post: #21

Curious to see what a satellite estimates the blast radius is.

I mean 21 tons of TNT ? Jesus.

Post: #22

(08-13-2015 03:26 PM)kaotic Wrote:  Curious to see what a satellite estimates the blast radius is.

I mean 21 tons of TNT ? Jesus.

Thunderf00t:

China explosion could have OBLITERATED Yankee stadium!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hcwMwFbJKc

Ball park numbers:
1 mole of TNT ~ 250g
1mole of TNT exploding gives ~ 7 moles of gas.
1 mole of gas ~ 22.4 liters

so 250 g of TNT detonating gives ~ 150 liters of gas.
However the gas is not at room temperature (~300 k) but 2000K.
Gas expands ~ 7x when heated from 300 K to 2000 K.

So when 250g (1/4kg) of TNT is detonated, it creates a fireball ~ 1000 liters in size, or 1 cubic meter.

The fireball in the video is ~300m in diameter, or 150m radius.
This means the volume of the fireball is ~14 million cubic meters.

This means ~3000 tons of TNT would be required to make this fireball.

If the estimated diamter of the fireball is reduced to 150m, the volume of course goes down by a factor of 8.
This would still mean an estimated 300 tons would be required.

It certainly seems the chinese estimate of 20 tons of TNT seems on the light side!

Post: #23

(08-13-2015 03:52 PM)Ngama_shaka Wrote:  It certainly seems the chinese estimate of 20 tons of TNT seems on the light side!

I'm sure PRC officials are going to plays this down dramatically.

Post: #24

(08-13-2015 03:52 PM)Ngama_shaka Wrote:  

(08-13-2015 03:26 PM)kaotic Wrote:  Curious to see what a satellite estimates the blast radius is.

I mean 21 tons of TNT ? Jesus.

Thunderf00t:

China explosion could have OBLITERATED Yankee stadium!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hcwMwFbJKc

Ball park numbers:
1 mole of TNT ~ 250g
1mole of TNT exploding gives ~ 7 moles of gas.
1 mole of gas ~ 22.4 liters

so 250 g of TNT detonating gives ~ 150 liters of gas.
However the gas is not at room temperature (~300 k) but 2000K.
Gas expands ~ 7x when heated from 300 K to 2000 K.

So when 250g (1/4kg) of TNT is detonated, it creates a fireball ~ 1000 liters in size, or 1 cubic meter.

The fireball in the video is ~300m in diameter, or 150m radius.
This means the volume of the fireball is ~14 million cubic meters.

This means ~3000 tons of TNT would be required to make this fireball.

If the estimated diamter of the fireball is reduced to 150m, the volume of course goes down by a factor of 8.
This would still mean an estimated 300 tons would be required.

It certainly seems the chinese estimate of 20 tons of TNT seems on the light side!

Post: #25

(08-13-2015 03:59 PM)kaotic Wrote:  

(08-13-2015 03:52 PM)Ngama_shaka Wrote:  It certainly seems the chinese estimate of 20 tons of TNT seems on the light side!

I'm sure PRC officials are going to plays this down dramatically.

Yeah Apparently a FEW apartment buildings collapsed as well.

I saw a video of a guy AT the explosion using a Chinese app that allows you to live stream to WeChat as you record it.

I didn't know what I had seen at first, but I realized I Just saw the last moments of a person's life. On Youtube.

I had a hard time sleeping last night.

I'm not going to post it here, but if you want to find it, its around on Youtube.