Talk:Oppau explosion

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The article referenced says "two not very loud bangs" were heard in Munich, and people in Karlsruhe (much nearer) also didn't hear a "loud" bang, so this seems like an exaggeration.

Added Cleanup tag. I've fixed some stuff, but this page still has some grammar problems, lots of wrong tenses. But I don't know enough about fertilisers and the incident to really tackle it. goodsmonth 02:01, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

"it was not known at the time that ammonium nitrate was explosive." I think it was actually used in explosives during WW1, so it should have been well known. Maybe they didn't consider the pure substance or the double salt harmful, but the use as Ammonal (mixed with aluminium) has been done since 1900.188.109.25.216 (talk) 15:01, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I presume it was used along with something else. Pure ammonium nitrate is not very explosive, and not easy to ignite. But with some oxidizable material, it is very explosive. Usually it takes TNT to ignite alone. Gah4 (talk) 03:01, 19 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I presume it was used along with something else. Pure ammonium nitrate is not very explosive, and not easy to ignite. But with some oxidizable material, it is very explosive. Usually it takes TNT to ignite alone. Gah4 (talk) 03:01, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Not known to be explosive?
Ammonium nitrate was known to be explosive, but experiments showed that a mixture with at least 45 % of ammonium sulfate should lose the ability to explode. Unfortunately, the concentration of ammonium sulfate could have been lower, which was possible due to quality issues in testing it.--77.182.171.38 (talk) 23:56, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Circular referencing
Reference 1/"frenchdoc", the one by the French Ministry of Environment, cites the German Wikipedia article. We should take care to make sure that no circular referencing occurs or has occurred. Forewarned = forearmed! Thanks, Tomásdearg92 (talk) 02:00, 31 July 2017 (UTC)

Complete nonsense, probably a prank
The purported causes of the accident are unsourced and ridiculous. Read the far better sourced German article. 2.34.240.119 (talk) 07:29, 6 August 2020 (UTC)


 * The description of the site, too. There were no tower silos involved.
 * (And the contemporary picture already talks about gas holders, which weren't either.)
 * --Ikar.us (talk) 13:49, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

potassium
I thought when I first read about this one, that is was ammonium sulfate and potassium nitrate. Both are, as well as I know, separately not explosive. Or maybe both ammonium and potassium nitrates. Gah4 (talk) 02:48, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

OK, this one says that it included KCl, and that some claimed no ammonium nitrate was there. But when you mix them damp, the ions can move around. Gah4 (talk) 02:57, 19 April 2023 (UTC)