A new series about natural and man-made disasters.

Part 1: Halifax explosion 1917

One of the largest man-made non nuclear explosions happened on Dec.6th 1917 in Halifax Canada.
Two ships, the MontBlanc, and the Imo collided in the habour-entrace, during that rather minor collision, sparks flown over the deck of the MontBlanc, igniting some boxes stored there.
The crew of the MontBlanc immeaditly abandoned the ship, knowing about their sensitive Cargo, including 4800t high explosive picric acid, 200t TNT, 65t gun cotton and 35000l benzole.
Cause the Captain of the MontBlanc neglected to rise the "Red Flag" as a sign of dangerous cargo, no one was worried about the burning ship. The undamaged Imo continued it's voyage, and bystanders gathered to watch the fire.
Only the habourmaster, also knowing about the MontBlanc's Cargo rushed to the telegraph-station to warn others.
After 20min burning, the MontBlanc disapears in a fireball, and the shockwave of the blast destroyed the Halifax-habour and large areas of the city, killing 2000people.
Amazingly the Crew of the MontBlanc was far enough away to survive the blast, also the Imo was washed ashore, only with minor damage.
The blast had an equivalent energy of about 2.9Kt TNT and was noticeable over 300km(160mi) away, the anchor of the MontBlanc, weighing 520kg (1000pound) was found 4km (2.5mi) away.

During the Manhattan-Project, scientists studied this explosion to gauge the effects of a nuclear bomb.


The TPT-Simulation starts as the benzole ignited, and the fire begun to rise.

http://static.powdertoy.co.uk/2041604.png

Hm, an idea how to simulate a crashing plane?

Part-2: Mount St.-Helens 1980

In spring 1980 Mt.St.Helens in the US-state Washington came back to life.
Quiet for 130 Years, the 1st smaller eruption take place on Apr.10th 1980 after announcing oneself by a few minor earthquakes.
The eruption continued a few days, but thereafter it seems that the volcano falls back asleep.
But Mt.St.Helens wasn't. Only the main magma conduit was clogged and pressure builds up inside looking for an escape.
A sign of the rising pressure was a bulge on the northern side of the mountain, detected by scientists.
The next few days this bulge increased it's size and on May.18th the whole northern side of Mt.St.Helens collapsed into a pyroclastic flow. The Ash-column rised up to 19km (12miles) into the sky.
The giant eruption continued for 9 hours, devastating 57000km² (22000mi²) of land, triggering serval landslides and lahars.
57 people where killed during the eruption, which was one of the largest ever recorded.

http://static.powdertoy.co.uk/2043616.png



Part-3: Boston molassis flood.

On Jan.15th 1919, a 15x27m (50x90ft.) storage tank of a distillery near the Boston habour, containing 8700000l (2300000gal.) molassis bursted.
The molassis starts to flow down to the habour in a wave of 8m (25ft.), damaging serval buildings.
21 people where killed, and 150 injured.
The molassis covered wide areas of the habour and the cleanup took many weeks.
Witnesses reported that years afterwards during summertime there was still a sweet smell into the air.

Something similar happened about a hundred years earlier in London, not with molassis, but with 300000gal. beer, 8 people where killed in this incident.

http://static.powdertoy.co.uk/2044915.png

Hey Guys, i'm back. prepare for new disasters...