It was 100 years ago today...

[robkelk]

... that Halifax exploded. It's still the largest non-nuclear explosion on record anywhere.

CBC has colourized some photos of the aftermath:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scoti...-1.4435266

[Star Ranger4]

WOAH. That looks like a big enough boom even for Jamie Hynaman!

[Norgarth]

It was a WWI munitions ship, fully loaded, that caught fire after it collided with another ship in the straits leading to Halifax harbour (going by memory)

[Bob Schroeck]

2.9 kilotons. Wow.

[robkelk]

CBC decided to ask "what if it happened today, in a different port?"

Six big booms

[Rajvik]

Would depend on the port, but nothing good I would say

[robkelk]

Definitely nothing good.

Showing the same size explosion at some US ports (usually avoiding military ports for obvious reasons):

• NYC, Pier 11 ferry terminal - takes out Battery Park and the Brooklyn Bridge, and damages the Manhattan Bridge
  
• colliding with the RiverLink Ferry between Philadelphia and Camden - takes out the Battleship New Jersey, Rutgers University - Camden, and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge (I-676)
  
• Harbor East ferry terminal, Baltimore - takes out the entire Inner Harbor, including the USS Constellation and USCG Chesapeake
  
• Galveston Harbor
  
• Cleveland Harbor
  
• directly above the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, on the border (cheating here - this isn't a harbor or port)
  
• Navy Pier, Chicago
  
• Duluth harbor
  
• Seattle Ferry Terminal
  
• Pier 41 ferry terminal, San Francisco
  
• San Pedro ferry terminal, LA
  
• North Harbor, San Diego - takes out the airport and damages the USS Midway
  

I think the lesson here is "don't ship explosives by ship."

[Pyeknu]

They actually have a website where people could see the detonation strength of nuclear warheads. Yeah...!

[Star Ranger4]

Those are just the explosion effects of the blast itself.

Knowing those west coast ports, I can see at least ONE place where there would be siginificant secondary detonations from this event. I can also see why Rob was very carefull about this, as there are also locations that are very close but looking at them might freak out the 'Powers that Be' that someone is planning something... Not GOOD (tm)

And yet, shipping them by ship is STILL the safest way to move them.

[robkelk]

They actually have a website where people could see the detonation strength of nuclear warheads.  Yeah...!

Yep - very handy if you're setting up a game of The Morrow Project.

(For fun, I asked it to show me what would happen if a Tsar Bomba was detonated above the Peace Tower in Ottawa. The blast radius crossed the US border.)

[Bob Schroeck]

They actually have a website where people could see the detonation strength of nuclear warheads.  Yeah...!

Yep - very handy if you're setting up a game of The Morrow Project.

John "Skitz" Freiler could have used it back in the 80s when he set up his Morrow Project campaign -- instead he had to do everything by hand.

And while we're on the topic... New Brunswick, down the road from us, used to be a port long ago...  If it were still one, and, well, you know..