Ammonium Nitrate : Cause of Beirut Blast ( a deadly explosion)

Ammonium nitrate, (NH₄NO₃), a salt of ammonia and nitric acid, used widely in fertilizers and explosives.

The commercial grade contains about 33.5 percent nitrogen, all of which is in forms utilizable by plants, it is the most common nitrogenous component of artificial fertilizers.

Ammonium nitrate also is employed to modify the detonation rate of other explosives, such as nitroglycerin in the so-called ammonia dynamites, or as an oxidizing agent in the ammonals, which are mixtures of ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminum.

Ammonium nitrate is highly explosive when it comes into contact with fire , and when it explodes, ammonium nitrate can release toxic gases including nitrogen oxides and ammonia gas.

There are strict rules in how to store it safely- including requiring the storage site to be thoroughly fire proofed, and not have any drains, pipes or other channels in which ammonium nitrate could build up and create an additional explosion hazard.

But when it comes in contact with some contaminated items such as fuel oil it could cause an explosion.

In Beirut : a massive explosion rocked on Tuesday (4 Aug 2020) , flattening much of the city's port, damaging buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky.

More than 70 people are killed and 3,000 injured, with the numbers increasing.

President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years.

The ammonium nitrate had reportedly been unloaded from a ship impounded at the port in 2013 , and then stored in a warehouse there.

The explosion comes at a sensitive time for Lebanon, with an economic crisis reigniting old divisions as the country struggles with the coronavirus crisis.

The blast was felt 240km (150miles) away on the island of cyprus, in the Eastern Mediterranean , with people there saying they thought it was an earthquake.

The whole city was black, people were covered in blood.

The future of the port itself is in doubt due to the destruction caused and with many building and homes reduced to an uninhabitable mess of glass and debris , many residents have been left homeless.

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