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Nitrogen , one of three common additive to agrarian fertilizer , is often in the form of ammonium ion nitrate , a potentially explosive chemical chemical compound .

Thirty - four production works across America raise nitrogen fertilizer . The readiness in West , Texas that exploded on April 17 , 2013 , was a retail installation , not a production facility . There are around 6,000 retail facilities around the nation that betray fertiliser directly to husbandman .

Infographic: Why fertilizer is explosive is explained.

Ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in fertilizer, can be powerfully explosive under certain conditions.

ammonium ion nitrate can explode under conditions of heat or jar . The chemical was a part of the bomb calorimeter used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombardment of April 19 , 1995 .

A black and white photo of a large mushroom cloud from a nuclear blast

Radiation Detection Manager Jeff Carey, with Southern California Edison, takes a radiation reading at the dry storage area during a tour of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station south of San Clemente, CA

Volcano erupting

Volunteers and residents clear up wreckage after mobile home was hit by a tornado on March 16, 2025 in Calera, Alabama.

A satellite view of stormy weather sweeping across Florida on Monday morning when the tornado hit north of Orlando.

Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser, Yellowstone.

A satellite image of a large hurricane over the Southeastern United States

A satellite photo of a giant iceberg next to an island with hundreds of smaller icebergs surrounding the pair

A photo of Lake Chala

A blue house surrounded by flood water in North Beach, Maryland.

a large ocean wave

Sunrise above Michigan�s Lake of the Clouds. We see a ridge of basalt in the foreground.

Infographic: The layers and functions of the human skin.

science budgets for federal government

infographic of nuclear power plant

Fukushima fuel rod infographic

infographic of human body sweat

Today�s GoFIgure looks at phobias, defined as irrational fears of things which are not likely to be dangerous.

an illustration of a group of sperm