Quarry Blast

Twocalf · Dec 23, 2019

Here's a short video of two small blasts in a rock quarry near my home. I used my M2P, Osmo Pocket, and an old Sony HD mag tape camera on this 1 minute video. I didn't know how much fly rock there would be so I kept the drone back for the first shot but got in closer for the second blast where you can see the primary detonation tubing fire.

bumper · Dec 23, 2019

I like it! When I was an Oakland cop/evidence tech, they sent me to FBI bomb school. (Politically incorrect, but sort of like sending a pedophile to work at a kindergarten.) There are few problems in life that cannot be resolved through the judicious application of good explosives.

Twocalf · Dec 23, 2019

I agree! I wish I'd had a drone for some of the big blasts I've seen in the past. They're pretty cool to watch in slow motion when you can see entire rows of blast holes ignite with milli-second delays between each row! Done properly, you get excellent fragmentation with minimal heave.

MaxE1955! · Dec 24, 2019

Were they blasting for coal or gold? Just curious.

Twocalf · Dec 24, 2019

MaxE1955! said:
Were they blasting for coal or gold? Just curious.

It's a rock quarry for road aggregate. The material is a crappy basalt that breaks down to clay after several years under normal traffic and precipitation. In this case they were looking for a particular fragment size to use as drain rock in a large nearby road fill. The last blast on the video created the desired size range that then cascaded nicely down to their screen plant!