Order of magnitude estimate of Beirut explosion at 3 kilotons of TNT
@quantian1 correctly determined that this was an ammonium nitrate blast by analyzing the footage:https://twitter.com/quantian1/status/1290695231910875136CHEMISTRY FACT: Explosives have characteristic "detonation velocities" at which shockwaves expand.  Smartphone video records at 30 FPS, so the adjacent frames here suggest the front expands at ~100 m/(1/30 sec), or 3,000 m/sec.  Consistent with ammonium nitrate, not black powder.This was confirmed a few hours later:https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/1290758551737192455Lebanese president blames 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left in warehouse unchecked for six years for devastating Beirut blastEDIT: By the way, one of my friends was almost killed by the explosion. Thankfully they're ok. But they said:https://twitter.com/cyrilzakka/status/1290766217989500928This was terrifying to experience. Hospitals are being overrun with injured people. We need blood donations and disaster relief. Help however you can.As a US citizen, is there any way I can help directly? Is there any organization that ships blood donations directly to a disaster site? I suppose that would be very difficult, so the answer is probably no; it's frustrating not being able to assist.