

A blast in Tianjin sets off an explosion online - jeo1234
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21661490-blast-tianjin-sets-explosion-online-fired-up

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trhway
by the way, have you seen a "21 ton TNT" crater :

[http://www.wsj.com/articles/tianjin-blast-destruction-
from-a...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/tianjin-blast-destruction-from-
above-1439654034)

Looking at it i'm pretty sure there should be at least 1 more trailing zero in
the TNT equivalent number, and the 21 ton is just a small portion of the
explosion energy, ie. it is the portion which went into the ground and formed
the seismic wave.

~~~
caseyf7
The explosion and smoke plume was picked up by Japan's new weather satellite
too. [http://www.citylab.com/weather/2015/08/satellites-spot-
the-t...](http://www.citylab.com/weather/2015/08/satellites-spot-the-tianjin-
explosions-foul-brown-cloud/401303/)

~~~
a3n
The make and model of my car in my driveway was picked up by the satellite
Google was buying from in 1997.

I don't understand why "It was seen from _space_!" is at all a part of the
story today.

~~~
ArekDymalski
> I don't understand why "It was seen from space!" is at all a part of the
> story today.

Becuase most people still do not realize that the space is closer to their
home, than holidays resort they have visited this summer.

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sohkamyung
James Kennedy has this analysis of the explosion [
[https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/the-
chem...](https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/the-chemistry-
behind-the-tianjin-explosions/) ], including the possible chemical reactions
and the amount of energy released.

~~~
dbcooper
Curious that he couldn't "find" the enthalpy of reaction for the ammonium
nitrate. Surely he could calculate it from the sum of the products minus the
sum of the reactants.

~~~
TheLoneWolfling
Sum of products is surprisingly hard to do for something like ammonium
nitrate.

Among other things, there are actually multiple distinct breakdowns:

    
    
          NH4NO3 ---->   HNO3 +   NH3 
        5 NH4NO3 ----> 2 HNO3 + 9 H2O + 4 N2
        2 NH4NO3 ---->     O2 + 4 H2O + 2 N2
          NH4O3  ---->    N2O + 2 H2O
    

I suspect you could do fairly well by assuming that it follows reaction 3,
though. Like with assuming complete combustion.

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siscia
The article make it sound like the incompetence of the Chinese officials is
something particularly bad or remarkable.

For my experience those level of incompetence is just what you should expect.

Western world have no idea what China really means...

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fatman13gg
Nice try by the author to convince people to believe whatever the social media
threw at them.

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erikb
Funny how a "we are dying" note reads like.

