Montgomery Explosion Could Be Even Worse Than Beirut

[nortada]

During WW2 a large amount of explosives were dropped on floating targets at the other end of the Island. Many didn't explode then and still regularly turn up now. With a little modern explosives set to trigger them, they still go with quite a bang. This was one I found a few years ago, just a small practice bomb, about 18" long and 6" diameter Here

Always wondered where we dropped that one Well it was a very dark night

 

[nortada]

I would have thought that the population near the Montgomery would be a lot lower than Beirut, and the mortality much less, though there would be a lot of work for glaziers.

But bad news if you are one of them morts?

 

[Concerto]

Slight correction to your post above, the wreck contains munitions with a NET EXPLOSIVE QUANTITY (NEQ) of about 1400 tons. That figure excludes the casings etc. Which will make the total mass much greater, twice the mass wouldn't be unreasonable. The NEQ is the energetic material alone.
A while back I had a conversation with someone who has professional knowledge of the wreck and its contents who said that most of the munitions were large and unfuzed, so possibly not an issue (most military and commercial explosives are designed to be insensitive), however it's thought that there are some bomblets on board that were shipped with fuzes fitted and these are problematic.

I stand corrected. I did not check what NEQ stood for, so thank you for the information.

 

[Habebty]

Does anyone know if the explosive is still viable? Has anyone ever removed a sample for testing!! ?

All the video clips I’ve seen, where washed up ordnance has been destroyed by disposal teams seems not very spectacular, indicating that the demolition charge only caused the bang? Happy to be corrected though ?