PoirotryInMotion
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"WHY WAS THE BLAST SO BIG?
Investigators still are looking into the exact cause of the blast. But ammonium nitrate is used commonly as fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content that fuels plant growth, said Ronald Smaldone, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas. Its also used as a commercial explosive for mining and excavating because its much more stable than dynamite.
Compounds with high nitrogen content become explosive under the right conditions because they form nitrogen gas as a byproduct.
If stressed, its chemical elements want to decompose into water and laughing gas, but the way they break apart is with a runaway explosive chemical reaction. The hotter it is the faster the reaction will happen, said Neil Donahue, professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University.
HISTORY
Ammonium nitrate is best known as the explosive used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
More than a dozen other explosions involving the chemical have occurred over the past century. The deadliest was exactly 66 years ago this week, on April 16, 1947, when a series of explosions that began with a blast on a French freighter filled with more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer rocked the huge waterfront petrochemical complex at Texas City, just southeast of Houston. At least 576 people were killed and 5,000 injured."
From: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/18/new-video-shows-incredible-footage-of-deadly-texas-fertilizer-plant-explosion-god-almighty-damn/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=Share%20Buttons
Investigators still are looking into the exact cause of the blast. But ammonium nitrate is used commonly as fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content that fuels plant growth, said Ronald Smaldone, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas. Its also used as a commercial explosive for mining and excavating because its much more stable than dynamite.
Compounds with high nitrogen content become explosive under the right conditions because they form nitrogen gas as a byproduct.
If stressed, its chemical elements want to decompose into water and laughing gas, but the way they break apart is with a runaway explosive chemical reaction. The hotter it is the faster the reaction will happen, said Neil Donahue, professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University.
HISTORY
Ammonium nitrate is best known as the explosive used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
More than a dozen other explosions involving the chemical have occurred over the past century. The deadliest was exactly 66 years ago this week, on April 16, 1947, when a series of explosions that began with a blast on a French freighter filled with more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer rocked the huge waterfront petrochemical complex at Texas City, just southeast of Houston. At least 576 people were killed and 5,000 injured."
From: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/18/new-video-shows-incredible-footage-of-deadly-texas-fertilizer-plant-explosion-god-almighty-damn/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=Share%20Buttons
