Satellite imagery of Tianjin explosion from space ... gif .........plus cyanide

[Ichingcarpenter]

Tianjin explosions: sodium cyanide on site may have been 70 times allowed amount


Chinese officials have found what they believe to be hundreds of tonnes of sodium cyanide at two locations within the site of Wednesday’s deadly blasts in Tianjin as a massive cleanup effort continues, state media reported on Sunday.


The discovery came after reports claimed that up to 700 tonnes of the chemical – 70 times the permitted amount – were stored at the site, with some reports suggesting the company that owned the warehouse where the blasts originated, Rui Hai International Logistics, may have been illegally transporting chemicals.



theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/16/tianjin-blasts-sodium-cyanide-on-site-may-have-been-70-times-allowed-amount




Tianjin explosions so huge they were visible from space
Satellite images released by the Japan Meteorological Agency show the explosions at the Chinese port city as seen from space

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/13/tianjin-explosions-visible-from-space-china

[Fred Sanders]

1. Makes you wonder what the planet's useless 10,000 nuclear warheads going off would look like.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Calcium carbide -- once used in miner's lamps -- was probably the main culprit.

CaC2 reacts with water to release acetylene gas, which is not only highly flammable and burns very hotly, but is capable of decomposing explosively in the absence of air. Potassium nitrate -- a strong oxidizing agent and a key ingredient in gunpowder -- was also stored at the site, together with ammonium nitrate, a high explosive.

These chemicals should not have been stored at the same site, unless separated by a large distance and high berms.

There's something to be said for just-in-time manufacturing and shipping, as opposed to stockpiling.

[Warpy]

3. It was a staging area where things were offloaded from ships

to be sent out all over the country. Likely they didn't know half of what they had and stored unfriendly chemicals next to each other because storage was so short term.

It seems the small bang was the acetylene from wet calcium carbide. The big one was ammonium nitrate plus anything else in the area that could detonate along with it.

Compare it to the West, Texas explosion, they're quite similar.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. And the firefighters had no idea calcium carbide was present, so they used water

At least one has said they found it got worse as they tackled it.

At least 21 firefighters have been killed after two huge explosions tore through a warehouse in Tianjin's Binhai New Area late Wednesday night, and 85 other firefighters remain unaccounted for.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-08/17/c_134523554.htm

[damyank913]

5. Why is it daytime?

All the footage I saw was filmed at night.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. If you watch the gif at the beginning you

can see the edge of morning/darkness at the left side
of the gif........

This is the smoke from the blast and you are looking at a time frame of over 3 hours

[damyank913]

7. I did notice that...

...so I guess the satellite wasn't in position to catch the actual blast. I had no idea the blast cloud would still be moving through the atmosphere 3 hours later. Gives a hint as to its power.