largest explosion
Richard Muise
Nova Scotia, in 1917. A cargo ship filled with thousands of tons
of gun powder, etc, struck another ship in harbour. The ship caught
fire and exploded about 20 mintues later. It killed 3000 people,
and destroyed the entire downtown of the city. To see what it was
like i suggest a trip to the library. The pictures will attest
to the power of the explosion.
i agree that the shuttle was a large tragedy,but i felt you all might
be curious.Does anyone know roughly what the overpressure might have
been in the shuttle explosion. This would eb the mojar source of
damage in a ground accident.
Minister of Silly Walks
:The largest non-nuclear human-made explosion occurred in Halifax,
:Nova Scotia, in 1917. A cargo ship filled with thousands of tons
A year or two ago, a chemical plant (rocket propellant plant or something)
in Nevada, a bit north of Las Vegas, exploded in a fairly major way.
Anyone have more info about this one?
N
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"We have high-calibre management here, as in .44 and .45"
-- Andrew Heller, Mr. HaL Himself
James T. Green
>A year or two ago, a chemical plant (rocket propellant plant or something)
>in Nevada, a bit north of Las Vegas, exploded in a fairly major way.
>Anyone have more info about this one?
This is indirect, but my sister, who works in Downtown
Lost Wages tells me that when the explosion occurred,
they saw a mushroom cloud rising in the distance and
everyone in the office was sure that the Russians had
attacked and the end of the world was at hand.
/~~~(-: James T. Green :-)~~~~(-: jgr...@eros.calpoly.edu :-)~~~\
| "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving |
| the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the |
| Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." |
| <John F. Kennedy; May 25, 1961> |
riv...@dev8n.mdcbbs.com
> The largest non-nuclear human-made explosion occurred in Halifax,
> Nova Scotia, in 1917. A cargo ship filled with thousands of tons
> of gun powder, etc, struck another ship in harbour. The ship caught
> fire and exploded about 20 mintues later. It killed 3000 people,
> and destroyed the entire downtown of the city. To see what it was
> like i suggest a trip to the library. The pictures will attest
> to the power of the explosion.
>
I thought the Texas City explosion in the 1930's was the biggest non-nuke
"bang".
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| Michael Rivero riv...@dev8j.mdcbbs "A Human's Human!" |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| I'm a heterosexual, and a damned GOOD one too! |
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Keith M. Ryan
In a previous article, jo...@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (john.a.welsh) says:
>
>Try the Krakatoa 1888 (approx) eruption, that explosion blew out most of
>an entire island. From what I have read the shock wave was detected on
>very sensitive barometers as going around the world at least twice.
>During World War I an ammo dump was blown up on the continent and that
>one was heard a good distance (England?), but that was nothing next
>to Krakatoa, that was heard as the sound of heavy guns in India. The
>Tunguska blast was pretty good, too, but not as big as a whole mountain
>exploding.
>
How about this for the largest, non-man made explosion: Meteor Crator out
in Nevada. Anyone care to speculate on the sixe of that impact? Or the Hudson
Bay one, or etc.
--
If you thought that you thought that you thought you thought that that was what
you were thinking when you thought that, what are you thinking now?
answer: What the hell am I doing trying to make sense of this!
Robert M. Unverzagt
>
>How about this for the largest, non-man made explosion: Meteor Crator out
>in Nevada. Anyone care to speculate on the sixe of that impact? Or the Hudson
>Bay one, or etc.
>
I'm pretty sure that Huson Bay was not formed by meteor impact --
the nice circular costline does give that impression though. Meteor
Crater in _Arizona_ was formed (if I remember this right) about
35,000 years ago, practically yesterday. And that's far from the
largest non-manmade explosion on earth; there's a large structure
in Ontario (I think) that's something like 25 miles across -- it
begins with "M" but it escapes me now -- anybody know what it's
called? Satellite photos of it are pretty interesting.
Shag
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Unverzagt | "They put a hot wire to my head
sh...@aerospace.aero.org | Because of the things I did and said..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Leech
> How about this for the largest, non-man made explosion: Meteor Crator out
> in Nevada. Anyone care to speculate on the sixe of that impact? Or the Hudson
> Bay one, or etc.
The Barringer Meteor Crater is in Arizona, near Flagstaff, and the
impacting body was estimated at ~40m in diameter by Eugene Shoemaker.
It's a relatively small impact; because it's young, it hasn't eroded
much yet. See the sci.space FAQ for details (hey, didn't I just post
this? :-)
--
Jon Leech (le...@cs.unc.edu) __@/
``You looked so innocent and vulnerable, I wanted to use
everything I knew about radar astronomy to protect you.''
- Dr. Steve Mills in _My Stepmother is an Alien_
Richard Akerman
asteroid impacts I have ever seen. Gets to be a bit irritating after you've
seen it a dozen times, actually. Anyway, off the top of my head, it's about
25,000 yrs old, impacting body estimated at about 40m, impact about 10 Mtons
(Hiroshima was 13 kilotons). The "M" crater is Manicouagan in Quebec, it's
about 75 km in diameter, as compared to Meteor Crater's 1.2 km diameter. The
Manicouagan crater is about 200 Myr old, original size estimated to be maybe
100 km in diameter. There is evidence for two craters in the Sudbury region,
the structure they form is called the Sudbury Igneous Complex, it consists of
a 140 km crater, which at 1.8 Gyr old is the largest and oldest crater yet
found in North America, and a 9 km crater, about 35 Myr old. Also, speaking
of "M" structures, there is the Montagnais structure, about 200 km offshore of
Nova Scotia, about 60 km diameter, 50 Myr old. The other crater of interest
to many is the apparent ~200km structure at Chicxulub, which may be the K-T
Boundary (dinosaur death) key impact crater. The K-T boundary impactor is
estimated to be an asteroid (or maybe comet) of about 10 km diameter, the
impact would have been about 10^7 (10 million) Mtons equivalent.
For a nice size comparison of the Manicouagan and Barringer craters, I
recommend
Wetherill, G.W. (1979). Apollo objects. _Scientific American_ [vol.] 240,
54-65.
page 56 specifically.
Anyway, just some brief information, not the sort of comprehensive thing I
usually like to post. By the way, I think that the Tunguska Event may be an
FAQ-grade question, I posted a long thing about it last year, but I don't think
I have a copy. The information in the FAQ about asteroid impacts was provided
by me.
--
Richard J. Akerman | Ake...@Bill.Phy.QueensU.Ca | Ake...@QUCIS.QueensU.Ca
Incompetent Graduate | Ake...@QUCdnAst.BITNET +--------------------------
Student in Physics (Solar System Dynamics) | "I will go mad!"
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada | -- Arthur Dent
Henry Spencer
>I'm pretty sure that Huson Bay was not formed by meteor impact --
Most of Hudson's Bay looks very much like two overlapping circles.
There is actually some evidence that the smaller of the two (linking
the larger one with James Bay) is an impact crater, although it is
not definitive. As far as I know, an impact origin for the larger
one is just speculation. If they are craters, they are very old.
--
In operating-system code, log(quality) | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
times quantity is a constant. | he...@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry