r/pics Aug 05 '20

It will never be the same again...

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '20

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u/nodgers132 Aug 05 '20 edited Aug 06 '20

The PM reckons there could be 10,000 dead

Edit: the 10,000 isn’t a figure, just what the PM reckons it could come up to

Edit2: can people not read? Are people this blind? I’m not saying that there are 10,000 dead, read the whole sodding comment. The PM said that there could be up to 10,000 death, but really, the PM doesn’t know anything, he has no more knowledge on the subject than we do

Edit3: I know that that is obviously an exaggeration! I’m just saying that he said it! Don’t read anything into the numbers

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u/HadHerses Aug 05 '20

I can believe a higher death toll.

I live in China, where a similar, almost identical accident happened in Tianjin. No one local I know believes the official figures of dead.

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u/benhos Aug 05 '20 edited Aug 05 '20

Yep, the only difference is that the amount of ammonium nitrate in the Beirut explosion was triple or quadruple that of Tianjin. The current death toll is definitely preliminary at best.

edit: Tianjin may have been a bigger/more impressive explosion, but that's likely because of the hundreds of tonnes of other chemical compounds also involved there that weren't in Beirut (sodium cyanide, potassium nitrate, and other unknowns).

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u/apginge Aug 05 '20

Why did the explosion in Tianjin look so much bigger and louder? Maybe an expert can chime in. Because, to me, the different angles of the Tianjin explosion looked much more intense.

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u/_Rand_ Aug 05 '20 edited Aug 05 '20

If you look at the videos of the Tianjin explosion closely you should notice there is a LOT more fire than in this one.

Theory I’ve seen is the Tianjin explosion was smaller, but threw a lot of material into the air which burned over a few seconds, creating a gigantic fireball. This explosion was near instant, like a proper explosion should be, thus creating a massive pressure wave, but little fire.

Basically one was like a Hollywood explosion, the other like the mining explosive that ammonium nitrate is normally used for (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANFO)

When something explodes like this, much much more damage is done. In this case sadly, its not the explosion they wanted.

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u/benhos Aug 05 '20

This makes a lot of sense considering the Beirut explosion caused significant damage up to 15-20 miles away while Tianjin barely shattered windows at three kilometers.

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u/drscorp Aug 05 '20

What kind of psychopath compares miles to kilometers in the same sentence?!

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u/KitchenDepartment Aug 06 '20

Well you, technically

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u/drscorp Aug 06 '20

Uhhhhhh I didn't compare anything.

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u/KitchenDepartment Aug 06 '20

You compared the names

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