>Lately that Schuman was acting very strange.
Whenever that happens check the weather in Tomsk where the monitoring station is located. It's a bit stormy. Looks like lightning in about 5 hours.
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/russia/tomsk
>ammonium nitrate all by itself is NOT a high explosive
It's more difficult to detonate by itself. But it can detonate. This is unfortunately well documented by the long history of such accidents.
I found a government study examining the behavior of AN, AN + fuel, liquid AN, etc under various conditions:
https://www.osmre.gov/resources/blasting/docs/USBM/RI6773ExplosionHazardsAmmoniumNitrateUnderFireExposure.pdf
>>10207508, >>10206756 PB Chemproffag ammonium nitrate is NOT a high explosive. It's an oxidant to make a high explosives
Self nominating my own post to be attached:
> the key word was HIGH explosive. decomposition of NH4NO3 alone is a low yield explosive
The difference between high and low explosives isn't the yield. It's the distinction between the spread of the reaction happening do to shock wave (detonation) or by the propagation of heat (deflagration).
AN can deflagrate. It can also detonate when the shockwave heats trapped gas pockets to the point that they can cause exothermic decomposition of the AN, thus propagating the shockwave. And deflagration can accelerate until it transitions to detonation (which is what usually happens in these accidents). Lose prills have enough gases in the space between for this to happen. Adding a bit of fuel to react with the products of the decomp increases the power. But it doesn't change the class of explosive.