USGS Data on the Lebanon Blast

Roscosmos has shared before &amp; after satellite imagery for anyone interested: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;roscosmos&#x2F;status&#x2F;1291023063404994560&#x2F;photo&#x2F;1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;roscosmos&#x2F;status&#x2F;1291023063404994560&#x2F;pho...</a>

Somewhat related, the face when you solve for epicentre from seismic station data and get a location at negative depth:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.ei.columbia.edu&#x2F;2016&#x2F;02&#x2F;04&#x2F;the-earth-shook-but-it-wasnt-an-earthquake&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.ei.columbia.edu&#x2F;2016&#x2F;02&#x2F;04&#x2F;the-earth-shook-but...</a>

”The reported magnitude is not directly comparable to an earthquake of similar size because the explosion occurred at the surface where seismic waves are not as efficiently generated.”<p>Should this be interpreted to mean that the blast had more force than a 3.3 earthquake?

I was looking at the maps for this on the USGS site and thought that the location of the blast cant be that accurate surely?<p>Image from the BBC showing the location of the blast on a satellite image:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ichef.bbci.co.uk&#x2F;live-experience&#x2F;cps&#x2F;624&#x2F;cpsprodpb&#x2F;vivo&#x2F;live&#x2F;images&#x2F;2020&#x2F;8&#x2F;5&#x2F;24402a28-1228-4d18-b373-3b3c7e6821d5.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ichef.bbci.co.uk&#x2F;live-experience&#x2F;cps&#x2F;624&#x2F;cpsprodpb&#x2F;v...</a><p>It looks like the crater (crater! wow this was huge) was almost exactly where USGS plotted it to be, like down to a couple of meters.<p>Are the earthquake sensors that are in use really this so specifically accurate?

If this involved 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate, does that mean it was the equivalent to 2700 tons of TNT? A 2.7 kiloton bomb? That would put it at the smaller end of nuclear weapon yields, but not at the bottom.

BBC is reporting that people in Eastern Cyprus, ~250km away, felt the blast and interpreted it as an earthquake. Quite a blast.

That&#x27;s 25 times the yield of the largest conventional munition (Russia&#x27;s FOAB, 44T yield). The videos look unreal.

I’m assuming that USGS picks up lots of ground movement, for example, large blasts from mining operations. They must filter those out based on characteristics? Do companies give advance warning?<p>Just curious because those instruments must pick up a lot of things that aren’t earthquakes.

So about 1&#x2F;15 the energy of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb then.