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Massive explosion in Tianjin, China (Update: at least 44 dead, 500+ injured)

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G

Goreomedy

Console Market Analyst
Yeah, that CCTV footage shows why there's hundreds/thousands waiting outside hospitals right now. People watching the blaze just got nailed by the concussion/flying glass.
 
F

Fine Ham Abounds

Member
Kinyou said:
Holy crap

gia2TUS.gif
Click to expand...

Yeah, watching the first building disappear, then the second building (or is that just a wall?) disintigrate... Really sobering.

Not sure if I'm seeing right, but the tall building on the far right looks like the exterior material is vaporized from the blast heat
 
S

shockdude

Member
S

Szu

Member
spekkeh said:
I read a rumor of 21 tonnes of TNT, which would be two MOABs. Though that's 1/1000th of the Nagasaki bomb. (and a depressing 1/1,000,000 of hydrogen bombs)
Click to expand...

Last week was the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. After witnessing this explosion from all these video sources, I still can't wrap my head around the actual destructive power of those bombs.
 
LoveCake

LoveCake

Member
Machina said:
CMOv9hcWEAA6-5b.jpg:large


Apparently it was 1/3rd the power of the Hiroshima bomb.

Good lord.
Click to expand...

I have just seen a post on another forum with images of the local area, seems most buildings are damaged, most glass blown in/out, i don't want to post the link to the actual site here as there are images of people quite badly injured (they look badly injured because of the amount of blood due to flying glass) it looks to me that the injury's are mostly from flying glass in the surrounding area (my very limited medical knowledge).
 
G

Gamer @ Heart

Member
Szu said:
Last week was the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. After witnessing this explosion from all these video sources, I still can't wrap my head around the actual destructive power of those bombs.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the size comparison of he Russian Tsar bomb?

It gets to space levels of unthinkableness.

On topic:

Is this a populous city around that factory? You would think there would be zoning issues if it was that volatile
 
Kibbles

Kibbles

Member
Szu said:
Last week was the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. After witnessing this explosion from all these video sources, I still can't wrap my head around the actual destructive power of those bombs.
Click to expand...
The Tsar Bomba is absolutely insane and I can't even imagine what modern nukes could do.
 
C

cajunator

Banned
Gamer @ Heart said:
Have you seen the size comparison of he Russian Tsar bomb?

It gets to space levels of unthinkableness.

On topic:

Is this a populous city around that factory? You would think there would be zoning issues if it was that volatile
Click to expand...

Safety isnt much of a concern in Chinese cities.
 
M

maquiladora

Member
@MSimonTV
More on @CCTV_America: Xing Zheming says area buildings are "totally knocked down" because of the shockwaves of these explosions.

@MSimonTV
Our reporter on scene says buildings are collapsed as far as 10km away from explosion site in #Tianjin.
Click to expand...
.
 
B

backflip10019

Member
Gamer @ Heart said:
Have you seen the size comparison of he Russian Tsar bomb?

It gets to space levels of unthinkableness.

On topic:

Is this a populous city around that factory? You would think there would be zoning issues if it was that volatile
Click to expand...

According to Google, Tianjin has a population of 7.5MM, though from what I've read and seen, the explosion happened in a non-residential area. That's not to say that there weren't residential buildings within the blast radius, though.
 
LoveCake

LoveCake

Member
El Odio said:
Where is this coming from/is it accurate? If so that's insane.
Click to expand...

I don't know how accurate that image is, but i have seen online people saying it was equivalent to a 2.9 magnitude earthquake & people have posted seismograph images apparently at the time if the explosion.
 
C

CTLance

Member
Everyone's always going on about two explosions.

I'm actually counting three explosions in the video posted here. I think the BLEVE theory makes sense. One small one that could be a bursting pressure valve/pipe/tank/container, and then the two big ones.

You can see the first two quite well in this gif.
gia2TUS.gif
Click to expand...
The fire cooked some containers or tanks until the stuff inside was super-heated, held back only by the pressure containment. When the container finally gave way and ruptured (small explosion), it scattered its insides around and the fuel/air mix exploded upon contact with the remaining fire, causing the first big explosion (second overall).

That damaged nearby containers full of similarly heated material, and thus we get the third explosion, aka the second big one. Its basically an impromptu three-stage thermobaric bomb.

Wonder if we will ever learn what was in those containers.
 
M

Machina

Banned
BREAKING: #Tianjin has a population of 8 million. word is buildings have collapsed up to 10km from explosion site. mass casualties expected.
13 retweets 1 favorite

Oh no.
 
C

cirrhosis

Member
Machina said:
BREAKING: #Tianjin has a population of 8 million. word is buildings have collapsed up to 10km from explosion site. mass casualties expected.
13 retweets 1 favorite

Oh no.
Click to expand...

Really hope there isn't anything like Bhopal disaster casualties here but if that tweet is legit then doesn't sound good.
 
-COOLIO-

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
Machina said:
BREAKING: #Tianjin has a population of 8 million. word is buildings have collapsed up to 10km from explosion site. mass casualties expected.
13 retweets 1 favorite

Oh no.
Click to expand...

fuck.

this is going to be a day of mourning in the years to come for china.
 
M

More Fun To Compute

Member
BBC saying that it was a shipment of explosives that went up according to Chinese state media. Looks plausible that there was one fire that went out of control that eventually spread to explosives that I would assume were stored safely enough that a fire would not start there.
 
SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
Those videos are horrifying, holy shit. I hope casualties stay to a minimum, but it doesn't look good.

What in the hell were they doing at that factory?
 
M

Machina

Banned
cirrhosis said:
Really hope there isn't anything like Bhopal disaster casualties here but if that tweet is legit then doesn't sound good.
Click to expand...

More on @CCTV_America: Xing Zheming says area buildings are "totally knocked down" because of the shockwaves of these explosions.

Secondary source.

The casualties are going to be way larger than China will initially let on.

EDIT:

Fears of blood shortages at local hospitals. Mass casualty event.
 
F

fierrotlepou

Member
Machina said:
BREAKING: #Tianjin has a population of 8 million. word is buildings have collapsed up to 10km from explosion site. mass casualties expected.
13 retweets 1 favorite

Oh no.
Click to expand...

What? I find this hard to believe. Buildings collapsing 10km from the explosion? There's people recording video clips from about two kilometers away and the only thing that happened at that distance is a shockwave blasting windows to pieces (and not even that).
 
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