Massive mysterious explosions rocked a Chinese city

[menudown]

Why would stuff that volatile be stored in a major urban center?
This series of explosion happened in a city of 7 million people and officials say there were just 17 casualties?!

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/a ... ty-tianjin

[Barnsley]

Govt plot to justify currency devaluation

Also can now get spending againg to replace the stuff that has been destroyed.

From Guardian live Updates....

"State media also reports that the owners of the factory at the centre of the blasts – named as Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd – have been detained"

Ignore Health and Safety at your peril!!

[ecureilx]

What explosion ?

Ship news says the port is operating as usual without any problem ....


Ps, loads of Renault SUVs, VW beetles and VW SUVs burnt... about 5,000 of them .. I suspect the death toll must be much higher just by seeing how the cars were nearly vaporized ...

[zzm9980]

What explosion ?

Ship news says the port is operating as usual without any problem ....


Ps, loads of Renault SUVs, VW beetles and VW SUVs burnt... about 5,000 of them .. I suspect the death toll must be much higher just by seeing how the cars were nearly vaporized ...

It seems realistic. 17 died, over 300 injured. If Keppel port (or whatever) had an explosion at 3am, we'd see similar destruction but also just as few casualties.

[ecureilx]

It seems realistic. 17 died, over 300 injured. If Keppel port (or whatever) had an explosion at 3am, we'd see similar destruction but also just as few casualties.

My 2 cents says, based on other news, the death "should" have been 170 or more.

[the lynx]

50 plus as of now.

[ecureilx]

50 plus as of now.

that they initially admitted 17, for me, seemed to be a miracle

Some of the Ships in the port had posted scary photographs, and likened it to a Nuclear Blast.

[Strong Eagle]

Unreal explosion... someone filmed it live... http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/ ... ing-moment

[calugaruvaxile]

it's nowhere near a nuclear blast . if it was the smallest possible nuke, the guy filming would have been thown down by the shockwave. more like a 500 kg bomb

[Strong Eagle]

Higher def, uncensored version: https://www.facebook.com/ebaumsworld/vi ... 4/?fref=nf

[x9200]

http://i.imgur.com/cggPVPR.jpg (full size)

[ecureilx]

http://i.imgur.com/cggPVPR.jpg (full size)

Latest News: China bans Drones !! (just kidding)

I am sure the above photo is not an official release.

[JR8]

it's nowhere near a nuclear blast . if it was the smallest possible nuke, the guy filming would have been thown down by the shockwave. more like a 500 kg bomb

What's the acronym for 'You're kidding right? '.
In the scheme of things a 500Kg bomb isn't that big. The IRA used several that were larger than that in London and the damage was nothing on that scale.
In fact, going further back:
'Between 7 September 1940 and 21 May 1941 there were major aerial raids (attacks in which more than 100 tons of high explosives were dropped) on 16 British cities. Over a period of 267 days (almost 37 weeks), London was attacked 71 times'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blitz

So if Tianjian was 500kg, that would make the start of 'The Blitz' on London, 200* that, 71* over => surprised there's anything left standing in London at all

[MikeJones]

I think it depends on what your 500kg is made up of and in any case from the BBC reports:

The China Earthquake Networks Centre said the initial explosion, in a city with a population of nearly 7.5 million. had a power equivalent to three tonnes of TNT detonating, while the second was the equivalent of 21 tonnes.

For reference the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were in the range of 16-21 kilotons (i.e. 16,000 tons of TNT). There were apparently some US nuclear artillery warheads that had yields in the 10-20 ton range for use as tactical demolition devices so I guess they are technically correct that it "was like a nuke" just a very very small one.

Mike

[JR8]

[Agreed, the logic was/is all these numbers tend to be expressed in 'metric equivalent TNT'].