TYB
Beirut port blast crater 43 metres deep: security official
August 9, 2020, 3:18 AM
The huge chemical explosion that hit Beirut's port, devastating large parts of the Lebanese capital and claiming over 150 lives, left a 43-metre (141 foot) deep crater, a security official said Sunday.
The blast Tuesday, which was felt across the county and as far as the island of Cyprus, was recorded by the sensors of the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) as having the power of a magnitude 3.3 earthquake.
It was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate, a chemical that can be used as a fertiliser or as an explosive, had languished for years, according to authorities.
The huge blast also wounded at least 6,000 people and displaced more than 300,000 from their destroyed or damaged homes.
The revelation that the chemicals had languished for years like a ticking time-bomb in the heart of the capital has served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.
Demonstrators on Sunday called for renewed anti-government rallies after a night of angry protests saw them storm several ministries before they were expelled by the army.
It was a new tactic for a protest movement that emerged last October to demand the removal of a political class long accused of being inept and corrupt.
"The explosion in the port left a crater 43 meters deep," the Lebanese security official told AFP, citing assessments by French experts working in the disaster area.
The crater is much larger than the one left by the enormous blast in 2005 that killed former prime minister Rafic Hariri, which measured 10 metres across and two metres deep, according to an international tribunal investigating his murder.
French rescue and police teams are among a much larger group of international emergency response specialists that has flooded into Lebanon to ease pressure on local authorities unable to cope with the disaster relief on their own.
Qatari, Russian and German rescuers are also working at the port blast site.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/beirut-port-blast-crater-43-081845962.html
Anon has watched many videos of the blast and finds the number of 150+ dead perhaps a bit low. After all. A port on a weekday is typically a very busy place with many workers. Of course there was a smaller explosion and fire before the big one. Maybe many evacuated, or were evacuating, as the bigger detonation took place. This could explain the seemingly low numbers. But anon feels certain that some people were just out and out vaporized and will never be found. Anon would like to see numbers on how many are missing. And whether those missing are incuded in the number given for total deaths. Also, of particular interest, anon would like to see numbers for burn victims being treated. Pictures of burn injuries would be especially helpful in overall analysis of this event.
lieu (lu)
n.
place; stead.
Idioms:
in lieu of, in place of; instead of: He gave us an IOU in lieu of cash.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/in+lieu+of
Yes.
The lack of sauce in postings on this board really shows just how far the discipline here has gone downhill.
>https://en.mehrnews.com/news/161888/Possibility-of-US-sabotage-in-Beirut-explosion
>Some radar images
Iranian retards. Those are not radar images. They are images of ADS-B radio tracking data.
NOWHEREin the article is any timestamp seen, or proof offered for when those images were taken.
It is my understanding that these were from AFTER the explosion.
And I think those can ONLY be found on the Russian ADS-B tracking site.
Interesting you should bring this up anon. Because I was thinking about this last night. The photo showing the opening in the smaller (dry) crater to the underground chambers is clearly not the main crater. But it is a crater nonetheless. And dry, as you point out. I read that the chambers are under the grain elevator and not the warehouse where the bigger explosion took place. Maybe this smaller crater is the location of the original blast which then ignited the warehouse that eventually blew up in the big explosion and left the huge crater that filled with sea water. That is my thinking right now. (Subject to change)