Reports are that the Beirut explosion was caused by 2,750 metric tons of Ammonium Nitrate.
That’s 2.75 Kilotons.
BUT, ammonium nitrate is not as explosive as TNT. In fact, it’s 0.42 times as explosive.
Equivalent tons of TNT is how a nuclear weapon’s power is estimated, so this is roughly 1.3 Kt. (Got to factor in that it’s metric tons, and Kt are measured in American tons too). That’s a lot smaller than Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but a lot bigger than the tactical nukes that the big countries armies have intended to use on the battlefield for decades.
So, here’s the innumeracy:
… a blast the equivalent to three million kilotons of TNT …
This innumeracy is from the Daily Mail. Not a great source, but certainly a popular one with enough money to employ journalists who know a thing or two.
Or not.
The author doesn’t appear to know that:
- A ton of something (even something explosive) does not mean the same thing as a ton of TNT.
- A ton of ammonium nitrate does not have the same power as a ton of TNT, or
- Most egregiously, that megaton and kiloton are variations on the same measure, and are almost never used to compound one another. When we’re talking about megatons of kilotons, we’re in the scale of all explosives on the planet, ever, all in one place.
Three strikes and you should be out.
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