An explosion at a warehouse in the Port of Beirut on Tuesday killed more than 100 people and left more than 4,000 people injured. In the aftermath of the blast, videos show plumes of red-brown ...

Beirut officials have identified ammonium nitrate as the base component of Tuesday's explosion. Nearly 6,000 tonnes of the chemical ignited and burst through a port in the Lebanese capital ...

Once a reaction is sparked, ammonium nitrate explodes violently. The explosive force occurs when solid ammonium nitrate decomposes very rapidly into two gases, nitrous oxide and water vapor.

Nearly 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate - taken from a ship off the coast of Beirut six years ago and then stored in a warehouse - has been blamed for the explosion that ripped through the port ...

And in 2013, an explosion at another fertilizer plant in the city of West, TX, claimed the lives of 15 people, injured more than 300, and destroyed or damaged over 150 structures.

"I am assuming that there was a small explosion that instigated the reaction of the ammonium nitrate — whether that small explosion was an accident or something on purpose I haven't heard yet." ...

Ammonium nitrate had figured in high-profile explosions before. It was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and was the cause of an accidental explosion in 2013 in West, Texas that killed 15 people.

The red-orange smoke plume was one of the first clues that ammonium nitrate was involved in the explosion in Beirut. On Aug. 4, a devastating explosion struck the area around a port in Beirut.

Ammonium nitrate, NH4NO3, is a strong inorganic oxidizer that can be an explosive by itself under certain conditions. It is primarily used as an agricultural fertilizer for its nitrogen content.

Ammonium nitrate, which Lebanese authorities have said was the cause of the Beirut blast, is an odourless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertiliser that has been the cause of numerous ...