Unfortunately, most Americans really aren’t quite sure what a thermobaric bomb is. Be advised, I’m only going into a bare bones explanation, no deep-in-the-weeds chemistry or ballistics lessons.
Mainly because I’m certainly no expert when it comes to the sciences of chemistry or ballistics, but I can at least give a fairly accurate (albeit pretty basic) explanation of what a thermobaric weapon is and what it can do to you.
With that said, other than the Ukrainians accusing the invading Russian armed forces of using at least one of these weapons against civilians, all most of us know is that “thermobaric” certainly does sound scary.
In fact, an awful lot of us, especially those from the Mid-West or Coal Country, are at least somewhat familiar with explosions taking place in grain silos or coal mines.
You know what causes those explosions? Dust. That’s right, plain old dust. Either in the form of coal dust or ridiculously small particles of usually corn or wheat and their husks.
Either in a partially filled silo or down a coal shaft, if and when a spark or flame is introduced to all that dust, especially in a tight, confined space, things are prone to go *boom*.
That’s basically the principle behind thermobaric weapons. A projectile releases its fuel (metallic dust or a mist of highly flammable liquid) over its intended target. Roughly in the center of that hyper-thick cloud of dust or mist is a relatively small explosive device.
But that relatively small spark is all the fuel needs. The entire chain-reaction happens in a split-second.
The ensuing explosion is so fierce and violent, humans within the actual fireball have been known to simply vaporize. They’re the lucky ones.
Here’s why: Those unfortunate enough to not meet their demise instantaneously are subjected to a fireball that sucks-in oxygen so quickly, some people have actually been turned inside-out.
Just imagine your lungs being ripped out of your body through your mouth. Or your eyeballs being ripped out of your skull. You’ll probably die in a handful of seconds, but the pain experienced will be off the charts.
The really, REALLY unlucky will be those far enough away from being atomized or dying a somewhat quick death but still within the casualty-inducing blast radius.
Second and third-degree burns, blindness, ruptured ear-drums, scorched oral cavity and esophagus, collapsed and burned alveoli (lung sacks) and ruptured internal organs are some of the injuries that the survivors will have to endure for the remainder of their lives.
However short that may be.