I was scrolling through YouTube when I found a video of the 2020 Beirut explosion. (I wouldn’t have clicked on it had it not been for the fact that it was an angle I hadn’t seen before.) I noticed that as the final ammonium nitrate explosion occurred, the camera was moved and a whoosh was heard before the actual shockwave and boom reached the camera. Shockwaves travels at the speed of sound and this was what was visible as the massive condensation cloud, so what was this force that moved the camera almost as soon as the explosion began?
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Depending on how the camera is mounted it was probably earth shock. Explosive energy doesn’t just travel through the air. It also enters the ground. The soil conditions effect how quickly the earth shock wave loses energy. A very tightly compacted soil or bedrock will carry the energy a decent distance before friction eats away at most of the energy. A loose, sandy soil will absorb the wave relatively quickly.
Either way, the wave travels more quickly through the ground than the air. Just like an explosion in water will carry the shock wave faster through the water than it will through air.
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