World War II Bomb Kills Seven in Burma

[Doomsday101]

SITTWE, Burma – Seven people were killed when a World War II bomb exploded in western Burma, officials said Thursday.

"They were killed accidentally in the blast while trying to remove a bomb that appeared at the sea shore near their village. They seemed to have no idea what it was," said a government official who asked not to be named.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/01/world-war-ii-bomb-kills-seven-in-burma/#ixzz1WinY0Ney

 

[big dog cowboy]

Wow just read that.

Hard to believe after all this time something like that can happen.

 

[Doomsday101]

Wow just read that.

Hard to believe after all this time something like that can happen.

I was a bit surprised to see this as well. Evidently it had been under water for all these years you would have thought it would have detonated already or decayed to the point of being harmless.

 

[Go Big D!]

I saw that! It reminded me of a similar story a couple years back about a Civil War cannonball exploding and killing a man 140 years after the war ended.

Here's the story about it:



Virginia Man Killed In Civil War Cannonball Blast

CHESTER, Va. — Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown.

As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics — weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms.

But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway.

More than 140 years after Lee surrendered to Grant, the cannonball was still powerful enough to send a chunk of shrapnel through the front porch of a house a quarter-mile from White's home in this leafy Richmond suburb.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353998,00.html#ixzz1WjC735PM

 

[Doomsday101]

I saw that! It reminded me of a similar story a couple years back about a Civil War cannonball exploding and killing a man 140 years after the war ended.

Here's the story about it:



Virginia Man Killed In Civil War Cannonball Blast

CHESTER, Va. — Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown.

As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics — weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms.

But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway.

More than 140 years after Lee surrendered to Grant, the cannonball was still powerful enough to send a chunk of shrapnel through the front porch of a house a quarter-mile from White's home in this leafy Richmond suburb.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353998,00.html#ixzz1WjC735PM

Geez, Hard to believe that.

 

[joseephuss]

I thought it was referred to as Myanmar now.

 

[burmafrd]

The civil war one was extremely rare; black powder soaks up water and it would have had to have been perfectly sealed for it to still remain potent after 140 years. That one is really a one off.

Now WW2 explosives, especially those in bombs, are much more stable and can last a lot longer. It will probably take 2-300 years for them to become harmless.

 

[Doomsday101]

I thought it was referred to as Myanmar now.

It is I guess they used the name Burma since that is what is was called during WWII

 

[SaltwaterServr]

The civil war one was extremely rare; black powder soaks up water and it would have had to have been perfectly sealed for it to still remain potent after 140 years. That one is really a one off.

Now WW2 explosives, especially those in bombs, are much more stable and can last a lot longer. It will probably take 2-300 years for them to become harmless.

Tri-nitro-toluene can, under certain circumstances, decay erratically. It can be fairly stable, and it can decide it wants to be elsewhere and self-catalyze the reaction by which the chemical bonds are rapidly broken. All it needs is wee bit of help, and that's all she wrote. I'm guessing that's what happened here. If some of the TNT can break down into constituent elements, you could have pockets of very mild acidic and basic "waste" within the TNT itself that are surrounded by buffers of the salt water that could have leached into the bomb.

Tap it once, destabilize the equilibrium whereby the pocket of acidic or basic elements can react with limited amounts of reduced benzene within the TNT, and you start a new reaction. A millisecond or two weeks later the reaction reaches it's tipping point by which the bonds of the vinyl groups to the benzene start to disintegrate, the benzene catalyzes or combusts and boom goes the dynamite.

Other words, **** blows up when it wants to, if it wants to once it gets old. TNT is more than just drama.

 

[burmafrd]

TMI


The older it gets the more unstable it gets.

 

[CliffnDallas]

Not uncommon from what I've read over the years.