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[Amalthea]

Like something straight out of Godzilla; what a massive explosion!

It's also often surprising how much it looks like miniatures when earthquakes and tsunamis hit a city.
I get the impression sometimes that the people in Asia actually saw those special-effects as acceptable because they actually look more realistic than somebody from the West might imagine since we aren't used to such forceful, large scale, urban destruction.

 

[orochi91]

The shockwave blowing apart that wall is so damn intense :O

 

[Sephzilla]

Jesus Christ.

It looks like one of those ridiculous explosions you'd see in a Godzilla movie. Except real.

 

[M52B28]

The shockwave blowing apart that wall is so damn intense :O

I think that was just some clothes on a clothing line.

Edit.. Holy shit... That wall blew apart like some bad physics in a game engine.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

More footage (WARNING NSFL: there are possibly dead bodies at the end of the video - you've been warned):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQwRMGa4jsU

This is an epic clusterfuck and I'm guessing the final casualty count is going to be far too high...

There was a little kid next to those two people... I hope those weren't his parents.

 

[SimleuqiR]

Has this 2:16min video been posted? Two massive explosions, the second one is the biggest. Look how far some of that large burning material explodes outwards from the second explosion. Damage must be extensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1aHADL2a24

Reminds me of

 

[SliceSabre]

It was so bright it lit up the entire downtown. Christ!

 

[Kenzodielocke]

Goddamn. Terrifying, but the explosion is mesmerizing. Hope the body count isn't too high

 

[superseohyun]

I'm having difficulty believing that the body count is only 40. There's no way with an explosion that huge in such a populated city.

there is no way to get accurate body count at this point....

There was a little kid next to those two people... I hope those weren't his parents.

most likely they are... probably knocked out by shockwave

 

[Matt_]

Jesus christ
You'd expect world war 3 to have started or a volcano to have erupted with something that size

 

[DrM]

We will have to wait for daylight to see the full scale of devastation

 

[maquiladora]

Terrifying.

 

[shadowkat]

Oh my god at at that video.

 

[Brazil]

My God, that is one huge explosion.

Hoping that the death toll ends up low somehow...

 

[jmdajr]

U.S. slow on this story.

 

[Pandora012]

Why isn't this on the news?

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

Oh my god...

 

[Escape Goat]

U.S. slow on this story.

Probably not a lot of Fox affiliates in China.

 

[Neverforget]

Holy shit batman! I hope no one died but it's kinda impossible to avoid any casualties with such frightening explosion.

 

[SwiftDeath]

Guardian article on this has been updated

Hundreds of people have been injured by a massive fireball at an industrial port in northern China.

According to reports in China, the explosion was caused by flammable cargo at a container terminal. Shockwaves from the blast were felt from miles away.

There is no information yet on the exact location of the explosion, or confirmation of its cause.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/12/explosion-chinese-port-city-tianjin

 

[Herbspiceguy]

More footage (WARNING NSFL: there are possibly dead bodies at the end of the video - you've been warned):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQwRMGa4jsU

This is an epic clusterfuck and I'm guessing the final casualty count is going to be far too high...

The explosion at 0:15 and the shockwave a few seconds after... just wow.
I hope the chemicals aren't too harmful. I can imagine the particles are spread in a very large radius.

 

[evilromero]

Why isn't this on the news?

Two things- didn't this just happen within the hour? And also, US news is very centered on US issues and incidents so I'm not surprised.

 

[maquiladora]

Earthquakes from the two explosions, second explosion was much larger.

 

[SteveTR]

Terrifying.

Good thing there are so many videos, I guess.

 

[GeoNeo]

Holy fuck this is huge.

 

[mxgt]

Video with a few different angles I saw on twitter. Warning, it gets really intense and you might hear panic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLfen9rjfvI&feature=youtu.be

holy shit that first clip

 

[Reven]

Fucking terrifying man.

 

[kris.]

CNN picked it up.

 

[Pandora012]

Two things- didn't this just happen within the hour? And also, US news is very centered on US issues and incidents so I'm not surprised.

They can be quick when they want to be. Look at CNN with that ISIS flag.

 

[cajunator]

Not the largest explosion, but a big one. Classic bleve.

 

[maquiladora]

China Central Television (CCTV), the country's state broadcaster, reports the blast occurred in a shipment of explosives at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday night.

http://www.newsweek.com/video-appears-shows-massive-explosion-china-362338

Second explosion was probably from nearby chemical/gas storage tanks damaged from the initial blast.

 

[RotBot]

Explosion showed up on this satellite.

Satellite view from Google and Bing. Any idea what it is?

 

[Africanus]

Video with a few different angles I saw on twitter. Warning, it gets really intense and you might hear panic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLfen9rjfvI&feature=youtu.be

I was not expecting that first video. I hope the man or woman filming made it out.

 

[evilromero]

Not the largest explosion, but a big one. Classic bleve.

What does this mean? Is this a competition for destruction and misery?

 

[Zophar]

Satellite view from Google and Bing. Any idea what it is?

Those are likely way out of date; the whole area is probably built up by now with factories and stuff. Google's aerial photos in a lot of areas in China are ancient at this point.

 

[m_dorian]

My condolences to the families affected by this tragedy.

 

[Nokterian]

My god so damn terrifying the air pressure after it fuck that was too intense.

 

[cirrhosis]

What does this mean? Is this a competition for destruction and misery?

BLEVE is the type of explosion - Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion.

 

[aspiegamer]

The official CCTV term being put out is a shipping container, though I'm not sure what kind of "shipping container" could cause something that gigantic. Based on the mappings of the area, although those hundreds of residential highrises are 3-5mi+ away from the chemical processing of the area, they start less than a mile away from the container port area with a large block of buildings practically across the street.

Saying "dozens injured" in the stories is being far too polite. This is in the thousands... I don't want to know how many just from broken glass if nothing else.

The only good news is that there's a massive medical facility very close.

 

[hal9001]

Utterly terrifying and incredible. Like something out of a movie.

 

[LoveCake]

That's a big one it reminds me of the Pepcon Explosion (one of the biggest non-nuclear explosion ever i think)

Docu
Raw video

On the videos you can see the shockwave racing across the ground, then listen how long it take to hear the explosion, that's how far away the people were taking the video & half way up a mountain.

I have seen reports that this explosion is at a petrol storage facility (some have said its close to the port) also there are reports of about two hundred dead https://twitter.com/NewsThisSecond/status/631530824333139968 & people are fleeing the area!
Looks very bad indeed, depending what the chemicals are there could be a risk of toxins in the air.

 

[vagabondarts]

This is absolutely terrifying.

 

[Slayer-33]

This is batshit, hopeful not many died

 

[Goreomedy]

The official CCTV term being put out is a shipping container, though I'm not sure what kind of "shipping container" could cause something that gigantic.

Reading reports of a ship in the port with a container of explosives... which seems incredibly stupid.

 

[dramatis]

Major news outlets are probably looking for more info, but US online news seems to have picked it up quick. Business Insider and Huffington Post had brief reports up a while ago.

The second explosion happened so quickly after the first one, people wouldn't have had time to get away.

 

[InfiniteBento]

Holy shit

 

[colafizz]

Reportedly caused by a shipment of explosives in the city's port

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11799581/Huge-explosions-rock-Chinese-city.html

 

[Kuldar]

Let's hope it wasn't a chemical factory with highly toxic gas.

edit: oh seems like it's not a chemical factory.

 

[Terra Firma]

Condolences to all those affected.

 

[Guy.brush]

Tinfoil hat ON

Stuxnet 2.0?
Port harbor using crappy SCADA systems controlling container temperature being hacked, retaliation for the massive Chinese hack some weeks ago? We will probably never know the real cause for this.