"Ammonium Nitrate" The reason behind Lebanese Capital Explosion.

The lebanese capital Beirut was stunned on Tuesday evening with a massive explosion in a region caused nearly 100 deaths and left thousands injured.

Explosion site 

"Ammonium Nitrate" The reason behind Lebanese Capital Explosion.

As reports confirmed by lebanese authorities. the explosion was caused with around 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored near the city’s cargo port. 

The explosion caused shockwaves across the city, causing widespread damage.Official said they expected the death toll to rise further after Tuesday's blast as emergency rescue  workers dug through debris to rescue people and remove the dead.

After effects:

Triggered a 3.5 magnitude earthquake and also the shock waves across the city.

Destruction:

3 hospitals completely destroyed and other important infrastructure.

Health risks:

Fumes in Beirut will risk to residents until they naturally dissipate which will take several days.

Main cause:

Ammonium nitrate NH4NO3  which Lebanese authorities have said was the main cause of the Beirut blast, ammonium is an odorless lucid substance commonly applicable as a fertilizer that has been the cause of numerous industrial explosions over the decades.In agriculture, ammonium nitrate fertilizer is applied in granule form and quickly dissolves under moisture, allowing nitrogen - which is key to plant growth - to be released into the soil.

The industrial production of ammonium nitrate entails the acid-base reaction of ammonia with nitric acid

HNO3 + NH3 → NH4NO3

However, under normal storage conditions and without very high heat, it is difficult to ignite ammonium nitrate, Jimmie Oxley, a chemistry professor at the University of Rhode Island, told AFP.

What caused the mushroom cloud?

Videos from Beirut showed smoke billowing from a fire, and then a mushroom cloud following the blast.

"You have a supersonic shockwave that is travelling through the air, and you can see that in the white spherical cloud which travels out from the centre, expanding upwards," says Prof Sella.

The shockwave is produced from compressed air, he explains. "The air expands rapidly and cools suddenly and the water condenses, which causes the cloud,"

"If you look at the video [of the Beirut explosion], you saw the black smoke, you saw the red smoke, that was an incomplete reaction," she said.

"I am assuming that there was a small explosion that instigated the reaction of the ammonium nitrate - whether that small explosion was an accident or something on purpose I haven't heard yet."

That's because ammonium nitrate is an oxidiser - it intensifies combustion and allows other substances to ignite more readily, but is not itself very combustible.

For these reasons, there are generally very strict rules about where it can be stored; for example, it must be kept away from fuels and sources of heat.In fact, many countries in the European Union require that calcium carbonate be added to ammonium nitrate to create calcium ammonium nitrate, which is safer.

Source: AFP news agency

Past Ammonium nitrate disasters:

These include notably at a Texas fertilizer plant in 2013 that killed 15 and was ruled deliberate, and another at a chemical plant in Toulouse, France in 2001 that killed 31 people but was accidental.It was also a component in the bomb behind the 1995 Oklahoma City attack.