I gotta chuckle at that reporter's name: Steve Ohnesorge. Steve "Without care, worry."
I'm still not clear on whether this was a pressure vessel rupture or a real combustion explosion.
From the energy involved, it could be either a real big pressure vessel, or a real big H2 - O2 mix.
Neither of which leaves much explosive residue to analyze.
Or is that still up in the air?
Terry, 230RN
I'm not sure what it was, Terry, H
2 pressure vessel bursting or gas combustion of some sort. It was one helluva boom is all I can tell you.
The shock wave was strong enough to cause damage at least 2/3rds of a mile away, something I confirmed personally.
I've been darn close to lightning strikes before ('frinstance, took a strike to an antenna on my house one July 4th when I lived in COS) where I thought the instantaneous thunder was loud, but this explosion was much louder, even at a quarter mile away.
Standing in the bedroom after the boom, there were a few seconds when I thought a plane had crashed in my yard. (I have a 2/3rd acre lot close to the airport.)
When I was one of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children, I got to hear arty and other ordinance explosions on the range now and again. There was one time in Hawaii when I was volunteered as a radio operator for an EOD team. We blew up a big pile of dud ordinance on the range one day, and it made a heck of a boom. As I recall, it wasn't quite as loud as what happened at the hydrogen plant, and we were a similar distance away when it went bang. It did make a real nice mushroom cloud and tossed a bit of shrapnel our way, making things a bit sporty for a few seconds.