Someone in /r/Physics provided an estimate for yield of Beirut explosion, and explains how he calculated those numbers.

submitted by FediNetizen from self.whatever

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[–]FediNetizen[S] 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (3 children)

Nice. Given we now know it was 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which has a relative effectiveness (coefficient of explosive power relative to same mass of TNT) of 0.42, you have a raw max of 1.155kt equivalent. However, you can assume it wasn't arranged to explode optimally, so about 1kt seems like a pretty reasonable estimate.

Thank god it was in a port with only a couple of industrial buildings in the immediate vicinity. Otherwise instead of thousands of injuries it might have been thousands of deaths.

[–]Zahn 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

This is the nicest thing you've said in a long time.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

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