Question

You are called to the scene of a large explosion at a local coal mine. Thankfully, the mine is an open strip mine, and the explosion took place during a part of the shift where there were not a lot of people present. However, 4 mine workers were still killed and another 11 seriously injured. You know that the coal mine uses explosives to blast coal out of the surface, but there was not a blast scheduled to take place tonight, nor tomorrow. The explosion took place at the chemical storage facility where the company keeps their explosives carefully stored and locked. The common theory amongst the investigative crew is that this was an accidental explosion that took out the entire storage facility. A car parked on the north side of the facility was also destroyed, along with several company vehicles.

You are concerned by the presence at the gates of an activist group that is protesting the impact of the mine on the local environment and wildlife. The group is well known and is looked down on by most in the environmental community due to their reputation for using violence to affect the changes that they want. So, you decide to run a few tests, to see if the explosion was an accident, as it thought, or if it may have been intentional.

There is no lack of explosive residue, as there was a lot of industrial explosive stored in the building. Your first test reveals that the primary component of the residue is a nitrogen bearing compound, with a molar mass of 80.043 g/mol. The residue also contains long chain alkanes, like those present in diesel fuel. Interestingly, the residue collected from the northern side of the building also contains a fine, silvery powder, which tests reveal to be pure aluminum.

Was this an industrial accident, or a potential domestic terrorist incident?

1. What kind of explosive is responsible for the explosion?
2. Is this kind of explosive plausibly the explosive stored in the facility?
3. Has this type of explosive been used in nefarious ways before?
4. Can this explosive be modified to strengthen it? If so, give an example.
5. Was this more likely an accident, or an intentional act?

Answer 1

Primary component of the residue is ammonium nitrate with molar mass of 80.043. .As it also contains long chain alkanes , it will be ANFO ( Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil) .It is a widely used explosive in industry uses and in mines.But the problem is with the aluminium powder.So the whole scenario changes as it is the main component of IED' s

* It is a potential terrorist incident

*It is an explosion using IED placed in the car parked in the northern side.

* This IED 's are used worldwide by terrorists to detonate a large area and they were used in Iraqi war .This explosive can be modified using addition of additional chemicals like nitrous oxide.

* So from the whole scene ,it is clear this is an intentionally created accident