The cargo ship SS Mount-Blanc carrying high explosives collided with the SS Imo just off of the docks at Halifax and caught fire on December 6, 1917. The Mount-Blanc caught fire and at 9:04 AM the Mount-Blanc exploded.
The explosion was measured at approximately 2.9 KT, To put that into perspective it was about 20% the size of the nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima.
1782 people died, about 9000 injured. The blast wave devastated Halifax to the tune of a blast radius of half a mile.1600 homes were destroyed and 12,000 damaged. 6000 people were left homeless.
Just to put the sheer size of this explosion. the massive Beruit explosion was between .3 and .6 KT, or between 10% to 20% the size of the halifax explosion.
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Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 12-07-2022 at 01:46 AM.
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Quite a boom, debris field stretched up to 100 km away in Truro and it was felt as far away as Sydney in Cape Breton and Bangor Maine, safe to say it probably was the biggest man made explosion in North America ever.
As a kid growing up in Halifax a lot of time was spent on this event (& Oak Island believe it or not).
The size of this staggering, it was the largest manmade explosion until the atomic bomb. It is estimated that the bottom of the harbor would have been visible because of the size of the blast.
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As the stories around here go, the explosion shook windows on the Mira River.
Not sure how true that is, as the distance is rather unbelievable.
I’m inclined to believe that it may be true based simply on my anecdotal experience of living near the RV storage yard in south Calgary where a propane canister exploded a few years ago and the blast from it shook my home that’s about a kilometre away pretty hard, and that was just one propane canister.
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Exp:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus
Quite a boom, debris field stretched up to 100 km away in Truro and it was felt as far away as Sydney in Cape Breton and Bangor Maine, safe to say it probably was the biggest man made explosion in North America ever.
Very quick wikipedia-ing.
Halifax ~2.9 Kt
There were a lto of nuclear tests that were much larger, both above and below ground.
Largest conventional, though, yup I think this has it covered.
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I’m inclined to believe that it may be true based simply on my anecdotal experience of living near the RV storage yard in south Calgary where a propane canister exploded a few years ago and the blast from it shook my home that’s about a kilometre away pretty hard, and that was just one propane canister.
I remember when I was a kid there was a house in the BC lower mainland which had a 40lb propane tank explode. It scattered the back half of the house over several city blocks.
The cargo ship SS Mount-Blanc carrying high explosives collided with the SS Imo just off of the docks at Halifax and caught fire on December 6, 1917. The Mount-Blanc caught fire and at 9:04 AM the Mount-Blanc exploded.
The explosion was measured at approximately 2.9 KT, To put that into perspective it was about 20% the size of the nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima.
1782 people died, about 9000 injured. The blast wave devastated Halifax to the tune of a blast radius of half a mile.1600 homes were destroyed and 12,000 damaged. 6000 people were left homeless.
Just to put the sheer size of this explosion. the massive Beruit explosion was between .3 and .6 KT, or between 10% to 20% the size of the halifax explosion.
Thanks for making this connection Captain. That's a great way to help visualize what Halifax might have been like except on a larger scale.
105th anniversary of the Halifax explosion
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