Oklahoma City Federal Building

Yield Strength of a nuclear weapon, usually expressed in tons of TNT. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 had a yield of approximately 15,000 tons (15 kilotons) of TNT. Modern high-yield weapons have yields >1000 kilotons of TNT. The 4000 lb ammonium nitrate bomb used to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995 was equivalent to about 1.5 tons (0.0015 kilotons) of TNT. 

The increase in volume as gaseous products are formed is even larger if several gas molecules are produced from each reactant molecule (Fig. 4.17). The explosive action of ammonium nitrate, which was used in the Oklahoma City federal building bomb in 1995, illustrates the point. Ammonium nitrate decomposes in a variety of ways, including... 

Studies following two recent terrorist attacks in the United States, the April 1995 Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing and the September 11 World Trade Center attack in New York City, have shed some additional light on the mental health outcomes following terrorist events. 

Ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer, is used as an explosive in fireworks and by terrorists. It was the material used in the devastating and tragic explosion of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. How many liters of gas at 307°C and 1.00 atm are formed by the explosive decomposition of 15.0 kg of ammonium nitrate to nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor ... 

Ammonium nitrate (NH NO, also known as Norway saltpeter ) is mainly used as a fertilizer. It is also known as the chemical that was mixed with diesel fuel to create the explosion that demohshed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 

The explosive violence of the second reaction accounts for the use of ammonium nitrate as a component of dynamite and its use in the devastating bomb that destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Ammonium nitrate has a high nitrogen content (33.5% by mass) and is highly soluble in water. These characteristics make it attractive as a fertilizer which is its principal use. 

More than 9,000 Red Cross workers respond to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by providing a range of immediate and long-term assistance to victims... 

That same year, 19 children (11.3% of the 168 fatalities) died in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 (Quintana et al., 1997). Sixteen of the children who died were seated by the window of the day care center at the time of the explosion. Among the 19 dead children, 90% sustained skull fractures, with 79% sustaining cerebral evisceration 37% suffered abdominal or thoracic injuries 31% had amputations 47% had arm and 26% had leg fractures 21% were burned and 100% had extensive cutaneous contusions, avulsions, and lacerations (Quintana et al., 1997). Forty-seven children sustained nonfatal injuries, with seven requiring hospitalization (Quintana et al., 1997). Again, hospitalized children sustained severe skull and brain injuries, extremity fractures, amputations, and burns (Quintana et al., 1997). 

On April 19,1995, a bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The devastating impact of the explosion destroyed the building within eight seconds. Each of the nine floors collapsed on top of one another. The bomb killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. The nation was stunned to learn that the attack had not been committed by international terrorists, but by a domestic terrorist, American Timothy McVeigh. 

The bomb used to destroy the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1S195 was made of ammonium nitrate. The bomb killed 168 people, including more than a do2xn children, while injuring 500 others. 

The decomposition of NH4NO3 produces large amounts of gas, which expands rapidly as the very fast reaction occurs. This explosive reaction was the main cause of the damage to New York s World Trade Center in 1993 and the destruction of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City (shown here) in 1995. 

Timothy McVeigh, who built the bomb that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, and the Irish Republican Army both have used ammonium nitrate as the main explosive ingredient in deadly truck bombs. 

Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers of... 

Ammonium nitrate is the most important fertilizer in the world (see p. 96). It ranked fifteenth among the industrial chemicals produced in the United States in 1995 (8 million tons). Unfortunately, it is also a powerful explosive. In 1 947 an explosion occurred aboard a ship being loaded with the fertilizer in Texas. The fertilizer was in paper bags and apparently blew up after sailors tried to stop a fire in the ship s hold by closing a hatch, thereby creating the compression and heat necessary for an explosion. More than six hundred people died as a result of the accident. More recent disasters involving ammonium nitrate took place at the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993 and at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 

Federal law regulates the sale of explosive-grade ammonium nitrate, which is used for 95 percent of all commercial blasting in road construction and mining. However, the wide availability of large quantities of ammonium nitrate and other substances that enhance its explosive power make it possible for anyone who is so-inclined to construct a bomb. The bomb that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City is estimated to have contained 4000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, which was set off by another small explosive device. 

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