How Can Fertilizer Explode?

Ammonium nitrate has been involved in dozens of disasters and terrorist attacks but, under normal circumstances, it’s totally harmless. What turns it deadly? #beirut #explosive #ammoniumnitrate

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Executive Producers:
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Hilary Hudson

Producer:
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Writer/Host:
Samantha Jones, PhD

Scientific consultants:
Jackie Akhavan, PhD
Gerald Kagan, PhD
Leila Duman, PhD
Brianne Raccor, PhD

SOURCES
What footage of the Beirut explosion tells us about the blast
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/vi...

The mechanism of the spontaneous detonation of ammonium nitrate in reactive grounds
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...!

Explosions of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in storage or transportation are preventable accidents
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Review on Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Nitrate
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...

Raman spectroscopy for detection of ammonium nitrate as an explosive precursor used in improvised explosive devices
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32146...

Safety and security issues relating to low capacity storage of AN-based fertilizers
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15885...

Lessons to be learned from an analysis of ammonium nitrate disasters in the last 100 years
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25203...

U.S. Contractor Knew of Explosive Material in Beirut Since at Least 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/wo...

Ammonium nitrate
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/comp...

The chemistry behind the Beirut explosion
https://cen.acs.org/safety/industrial...

What Is Ammonium Nitrate, the Chemical That Exploded in Beirut?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...

Why Beirut’s ammonium nitrate blast was so devastating
https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...

Beirut blast: How does ammonium nitrate create such devastating explosions?
https://www.livescience.com/28841-fer...

Texas City, Beirut linked by dangers of ammonium nitrate
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/loca...

The deadly history of ammonium nitrate, the explosive linked to the Beirut blast
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/sc...

The self-sustaining decomposition of ammonium nitrate fertiliser: Case study, Escombreras valley, Spain
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31761...

What is ammonium nitrate and what happens when it explodes?
https://www.compoundchem.com/2020/08/...

Crop nutrition resource library
https://www.cropnutrition.com/resourc...

Beirut explosion: What we know so far
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle...

Tianjin chemical blast: China jails 49 for disaster
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-c...

Beirut Explosion Generates Seismic Waves Equivalent Of A Magnitude 3.3 Earthquake
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbre...


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