Just after 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday a massive blast devastated a large part of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. It is reported to have killed at least 100 people, with more than 4,000 injured. As the smoke clears, commercial satellites have passed overhead, providing a sobering perspective.
Aurora Intel, which tracks security topics in the Middle East, shared fresh images which show the impact. The before-and-after gif shows how many of the warehouses along the port area have been leveled. The imagery, taken today, comes from Planet’s satellites.
The explosion was massive. Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, has said that it was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate which was stored in a warehouse on the quayside. Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer used in agriculture, but it is highly dangerous and is a common ingredient in improvised explosives.
The storage is consistent with reports of a cargo vessel, MV Rhosus, which was seized on September 23, 2013, that had 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate aboard. Information from ShipArrested.com, which tracks port seizures, says, “Owing to the risks associated with retaining the Ammonium Nitrate on board the vessel, the port authorities discharged the cargo onto the port’s warehouses.” The reason for the seizure are unclear from that source, however.
That amount of ammonium nitrate is equivalent to hundreds of tons of TNT, the benchmark in explosive force. This places the blast well below the level of nuclear weapons, but it’s still colossal. The terrible impact on the buildings, and lives, of the city is clear.
The blast actually changed the shoreline in the port, as seen in this radar satellite imagery from the Sentinel 1 satellite:
