Terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, U.S in 1995 used homemade bomb composed of more than two tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil concealed in a rental truck.


Judging by the crater size on Bruce Hwy there have to be much more then 2 tons of ammonium nitrate.

freediver wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2024 at 9:48am:


A couple of issues there. Shots on minesites are only set by qualified people, usually always from the supplier. Emulsion is usually only used for wet boreholes and is manufactured off site. I have no issues with the transport other than the route taken. They could have easily bypassed major cities.

B-Doubles containing Dangerous Goods are given designated routes.  They are not allowed to go "downtown".  As for slower speeds, remind me what the speed limit on the Gateway Motorway is again? There have already been Hazmat incidents on that route, and it's probably a matter of time before emulsion is involved.

The death of the ute driver was instantaneous. The accident was probably due to not driving to conditions (both vehicles) and the thick fog at the time. If it had been anything other than explosives, the ongoing consequences would not have been so serious.

They had to evacuate Bororen at very short notice. One resident came back to find a piece of truck embedded in her house.

What I'm saying is that the potential consequences could have been much worse. It was fortunate that  there was very little wind in this case,  and it was blowing away from population centres. (think clouds of NOx blowing across Carindale or Rochedale)

John_Taverner wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2024 at 9:20am:

Thank goodness for that. The Highway and humans would just be oxidised, for a short distance.  A crater of oxidise. Bruce oxide. (Not a greenhouse gas)

Gladstone soil is Aluminum Oxide, Iron Oxide, Potassium Oxide,  Sodium Oxide, Silicon Dioxide, Magnesium oxide and Calcium oxide.  Nothing changes when it's oxidised.
Road tar contains between 50% to 90% carbon. The Bruce crater has about 30 sq m of tar oxidised, with bitumen 80mm depth, 2.4 cu.m, of 95 percent stone, sand and gravel and just 5 percent asphalt. It lost 1 cu.m, say .08 cu.m carbon. 1 cu m of carbon weighs 2 266 kilograms so 190kg. CO2 weight is about 4 times carbon,  760 kg C02.
An average truck emits 223 tons of CO2 per annum, 300 times the explosion's CO2. The explosion was environmentally friendly, added nitrogen to the soil and removed a polluting truck from emitting 70 tons CO2 the rest of this year.

chimera wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2024 at 1:51pm:


So if the ammonium nitrate was being made in Moura - in the heart of mining territory - what was a tanker of it doing on the Bruce Highway near Bororen? Obviously not mining explosives but soil injectable fertilizer.

Liquid ammonium nitrate is used as a fertilizer .. not an addition to explosives for mining. How would they accurately place the right amount of liquid down a deep hole?

It its solid form it's called "urea"it has always been a fertilizer & used in mining explosives.

Just don't go into to Bunnings and buy more than 1 bag at a time. 

chimera wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2024 at 3:26pm:


What a load of bollocks.

Gnads wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2024 at 6:46pm:

True. All of it. There was no explosion, just processing of tar into CO2. Bruce has the pic of the hole in his highway.

Nothing to see here, just gum trees oxidising their flammable eucalypts.  Trucks get rusty. Especially cattle trucks loaded with urea. Closed containers may rupture violently or detonate if heated. May detonate if subjected to strong shocks, such as from an explosion. Ammonium nitrate of any grade, including fertilizer grade should be considered, especially when mixed with oil, charcoal, or other organic materials, an explosive capable of detonation by the combustion or explosion of adjacent materials.