MetaFilter posts tagged with explosion

Sands of time

twoleftfeet — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:46:54 -0800

Sand castle explosions backwards: 1, 2 The year is almost over. What better time to try to gather the scattered grains of another year back into a recognizable form? The beautiful forms of 2009 may have been blown apart, scattered into the wind, same as they do every year. But the possibility of a tasty sand castle cake is still worth celebrating.

Nitroglycerin in the Pennsylvania oil fields

tss — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:51:01 -0800

From The Titusville Morning Herald of June 17, 1866, "Our attention has been called to a series of experiments that have been made in the wells of various localities by Col. Roberts, with his newly patented torpedo. ... The torpedo... is lowered into the well, down to the spot, as near as can be ascertained, where it is necessary to explode it. ... The object of the torpedo is to clean out all the deposits at the bottom of the well."
In the western Pennsylvania oilfields of the second half of the 1800s, "shooters" were men who set off nitroglycerin charges in wells to get the oil flowing again. Tales of Destruction relates stories and legends of this absurdly hazardous job. Additional notes here, in Samuel Pees's Oil History. (Previously)

Bringin' 'em down. Or, over.

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:01:20 -0800

From Sheffield, England to Yongbyon, North Korea, nuclear plant cooling towers are coming down! And pretty much without a hitch. Things didn't go quite so well, though, for an old flour factory in Turkey, which just rolled over onto its roof. D'oh!

22 de Abril no se olvida

dirty lies — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:46:00 -0800

17 years ago, On Wednesday, April 22, 1992, the 461-year old city of Guadalajara, Mexico, experienced a series of ten massive explosions occurring in the heart of the downtown Reforma district. The blasts measured 7.1 and 7.0 on the Richter scale at the University of Mexico in Mexico City some 200 miles away. The disastrous series of sewer gasoline explosions in Guadalajara, though not caused by a terrorist attack, demonstrate the potential impact of a well-planned and executed terrorist attack using a city’s sewer lines. At least 200 people where killed. This photograph won the Premio Internacional de Periodismo Rey de España award. A graphic 8 minute video in Spanish showing rescue attempts and general devastation. Scroll down for a collection of scanned newspapers. First of five parts of National Geographic's Seconds from Disaster: Inferno in Guadalajara episode. The cause? An electrolytic reaction between zinc and copper pipes installed too close to steel pipe gas duct corroded the pipes and caused a leak, gases built up in an inverted siphon, then a spark.

"Can you really knock off someone's socks?"

zarq — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:01:58 -0800

KaBOOM! This past Friday, the MythBusters exploded 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate (25% of the same material used in the Oklahoma City bombing,) at a rock quarry in Yolo County, CA for an upcoming episode. But the explosion was apparently a wee bit bigger than they expected. It shattered windows in nearby Esparto and was large enough to be picked up as a "small event" ground tremor by National Geographical Survey sensors. Which myth were they busting, you ask? They wanted to answer the question: Can you really knock off someone's socks? :)

Making bubbles in the pool

not_on_display — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:31:38 -0800

Got some dry ice? Got a swimming pool? Well, what are you waiting for? Inquisitive dogs will be confused! Start with a small chunk. Next, take a 60-pound block of dry ice and kick it into the jacuzzi. Okay, so you're looking for more of a thrill? Try a dry ice depth charge! (If you don't have a pool, a frozen lake will do.)

Atomic explosions

swift — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:28:40 -0800

Atomic and nuclear explosions. Tsar bomb Operation crossroads, 1946 Atomic cannon Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic bomb tested on U.S. troops Dominic I Dominic Sunset First H-bomb First British H-Bomb Chinese nuclear test

Something exploded over and under Lake Huron near the US/Canadian border. Nobody knows what it was.

maxpower — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:47:24 -0800

Something exploded over and under Lake Huron near the US/Canadian border on July 31, 2008. Nobody knows what it was. Initial published reports identified the cause as a meteor shower (without attribution). A week later more details emerged and meteors were ruled out. So what was it? The local nuclear plant? The giant underwater salt mine? A series of earthquakes? Military fighter jets? All have been counted out. Pure speculation, but could this strange event be related?

boom

tehloki — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:40:47 -0800

A large series of explosions erupted this morning from a welding chemical storage facility in North York (a suburb of Toronto) at approximately 4am EST. The highway 401, North America's busiest, has been closed in sections, and thousands of local residents are still being evacuated, with several of them injured. Police and fire officials are currently not sure of the possibility of further explosions and are taking precautionary measures. The whole situation has produced some apocalyptic-looking pictures.

KA-BOOM!!!!

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:47:21 -0800

The Tunguska Event. A century ago, something exploded over Russia... Different theories abound. Some of the more outlandish are summed up in the always splendid Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World 1 2 3

Nostalg-afire Explosion

pokermonk — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:58:17 -0800

Searching for animatronics that'll take you out and do you right? Long beyond their glory days, renowned Showbiz Pizza house band, The Rock-afire Explosion, is attempting a comeback. Not that they haven't tried before, but this reunion is driven on multiple fronts: the refocussed creator Aaron Fletcher, the head (and tail) of Creative Engineering; accomplished custom performances by Chris Thrash (previously on Metafilter) and his fellow fan programmer/collectors; and a cameo in the technicolor orgy of an MGMT music video. (Noticed on the fittingly titled Gorilla vs. Bear.) The fateful history of The Rock-afire Explosion on Wikipedia.

I love arachnids! I love hot magma!

oxford blue — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:10:23 -0800

Feel good hit of the year; Discovery Channel's 'I Love the Whole World' ad This makes me superlatively happy.

With apologies to Mrs. B.J. Smegma of 13, The Cresent, Belmont.

Dave Faris — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:11:50 -0800

Controlled Safety Test Fireworks Videos : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

20,000 Pounds of Sodium Dumped in a Lake

polysigma — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:00:26 -0800

A rather interesting post WW II video of metallic sodium being disposed of in a lake. You might have seen this on a small scale back in high school chemistry class when the teacher put a tiny sliver of sodium in a bowl of water.

Ron Howard's Directorial Debut

potch — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 19:59:52 -0800

The first Grand Theft Auto.

Dallas had explosive gas this morning.

punkfloyd — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:53:19 -0800

A bunch of natural gas canisters blew up near downtown Dallas today. Eyewitness video!

"All guilty had been punished already."

Alison — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:53:03 -0800

The Nedelin disaster remains the most fatal catastrophe in the history of rocketry. On October 26, 1960 an R-16 ICBM designed by Mikhail Yangel accidentally ignited killing over 100 within moments. The incident remained in strict secrecy for thirty years until it was unearthed by James Oberg. The true casualty rate remains a mystery and Kazakhstan still sees more than its fair share of rocket mishaps.

PV=nRT: It's not just a good idea....

zarq — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 09:20:30 -0800

200 liters of condensed liquid nitrogen (LN₂) were delivered to Berkeley’s Condensed Matter Lab this past Monday. Sent to retrieve the 400lb dewar from the loading dock but faced with a non-working elevator, an enterprising young lab student decided to carry it down the stairs. Gravity is a harsh mistress.

If things had turned out differently, they could have been scraping his remains off the walls with a spatula. At Texas A&M in January a lab was badly damaged when someone ignored the Ideal Gas Law, removed the pressure valve and rupture disk off an old (LN₂) tank and filled the remaining holes with metal plugs. "How to Tell a True Lab Story" talks about a similar incident. LN₂ is good for more than just blowing up a school (or, um a watermelon), though: Spanish Chef Ferran Adrià uses it to create dishes at his restaurant. Previously on MeFI: How to make LN₂ ice cream (careful!) and unwise science experiments.

Paint splash towerblock!

ClanvidHorse — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 10:01:01 -0800

A splash of urban colour! A dilapidated tower block in Glasgow was the setting for a riotous splash of colour this week as Sony followed up their previous Bravia tv campaign of the bouncing balls down the streets of San Francisco with a new advert using a disused towerblock in Glasgow. Some beautiful urban explosion pics here, here, here, here and here.

The Day Vegas Shook

b_thinky — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 03:16:39 -0800

The Day Las Vegas Shook What were you doing at 11:45am on May 4, 1988? If you were a resident of southern Nevada, you'd remember. That was the day rocket fuel factory PEPCON was wiped off the map in a series of 7 explosions, two of which measured 3.0 and 3.5 on the Richter scale. The explosions sent shockwaves across the valley, taking with it marshmellow cream from the marshmellow factory next door, denting garage doors miles away, and shattering damn near every window in Henderson. As the valley's 500,000 residents stood outside wondering what caused the explosion and the massive plume of smoke, many speculated the Russians had inexplicably attacked Henderson. Miraculously, only two people died. PEPCON never operated another day in Nevada and moved to Utah.

British Oil Depot Fire

empath — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 14:56:24 -0800

Huge explosion rocks UK countryside. Police say the oil depot explosion appears to be an accident, even though Al-Qaeda called for attacks on the oil industry just a few days ago. (As usual, the media feels the need to report this, even though Al-Qaeda was speaking of Gulf oil targets, and nothing of this scale could have been implented in just a few days)
Some pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

boom!

crunchland — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:12:13 -0800

"A car riged [sic] with a VBIED [vehicle-borne improvised explosive device] blows up on bridge in Hit, Iraq." (Caution: contains audio with profanity.)

THE TRUE FIGHT WILL BEGIN FROM NOW!!

40 Watt — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 08:51:01 -0800

NEGADON!! "NEGADON - the Monster from Mars" is a "digital monster film", a film for the future. Similar in execution to the short film which eventually spawned "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", Negadon is a 100% computer-generated short which has been cleverly designed to look like the old Japanese man-in-the-rubber-suit monster movies of the 50's. Even the posters look the part.

Evacuations in response to "credible intelligence" received

tomcosgrave — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 15:07:32 -0800

Police evacuate Birmingham centre
West Midlands police have evacuated the second largest city in England tonight as a precautionary measure. Sky News are reporting that a series of controlled explosions (I heard on Sky News TV that one of these was on a bus, but this may be innacurate) have been carried out in the Broad Street area. I hope that any and all UK MeFi-ites in Birmingham are keeping sane through out all this.

Boom

TheOnlyCoolTim — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:02:17 -0800

Electric power transmission and distribution explosions and fireworks for your Fourth of July weekend.