Kilo mean thousand. Therefore 2.7 kilotons equals 2000tons plus 7/10s of a ton. 2.7 kilotons = 2700 tons.
Thank you. I'm still not positive that the blast is equivalent to the amount of material stored. As substances have different properties. I know nukes are measured in equivalents of TNT. And I'm not certain that this ammonium nitrate would measure in the same way. If I recall it has to do with seismic waves and the the overdressed created, similar to what Jobes mentioned.
The title is talking about the magnitude of the explosion, not the quantity of explosives. It's just coincidence that the numbers 275 are in both the weight and magnitude.
From what I read, the blast triggered a shockwave that would measure between 3.5 and 4.5 on the Richter scale. Charts that I saw would place the explosion around 3 to 5 kilotons, so the title is accurate.
a former British Army bomb disposal expert says the Beirut blast was the equivalent of 1-2 kilotons of TNT
I'll have to try and dig up and see if I can find the link that was saying 3-5, but not sure if I saved it. I think what I saw was just estimating based on the Richter scale where a 5 kiloton nuclear bomb caused a 4.5 quake to register, so they were estimating based on the seismological data and previous explosions
It was previously reported that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored at the harbour. I am marking this as misleading title.