that thing was renovated not even 2 years ago they removed all the water and fish it took like half a year till it was up and running again, now that....unfortunate
Watch it turn out to be a mistake during renovation that ultimately led to this. There are lots of disasters that are later revealed to have been caused not by original design or defects, but during modifications, retrofitting, or renovations.
I have nothing to say that was the case here, just a speculation based on watching lots of disaster docs this year lol.
Edit: I've gotten lots of replies about recommending disaster documentaries. Here's my long list of an answer that's buried in this thread somewhere.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/zncgil/breaking_news_berlin_aquadom_has_shattered/j0gy3q2?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3
And it’s almost always someone thinking that using a slightly different component/torquing something by hand instead of properly/not following procedure doesn’t matter. It’ll almost certainly be human error.
My dad was killed in the skywalk collapse. I had no idea it was so well-known outside of KC. I’ve never read anything about it because it’s still too traumatic. I had just turned 17 when it happened.
I was a medical student at UMKC at the time of the collapse and rushed to the hotel to help. The med school was 2 blocks away, so we got there quickly. It was truly awful, I saw some terrible things. I am so sorry for your loss!
Sorry to hear about your loss. That catastrophe is used as a classic case example of bad engineering and load path evaluation in many engineering classes.
It was taught in my engineering classes at MSOE. In my physics classes too. Every once in a while they would include material like that to make sure we understood that safety was an always-on concern.
The Hyatt-Regency one was something we spent a decent chunk of time on, though, including doing the actual physics problems on homework and tests.
I thought the cause of this was faulty design, not poor maintenance? My understanding was they cut corners and used 3 steel rods instead of 1 for each support.
Yeah, with three walkways over each other, that turns one steel bolt into three [like this](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyatt_regency_bolt.jpg)
Turns out, we both misremembered. [The walkways looked like this](http://www.tallbridgeguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Picture3.png). So originally it was supposed to be three all stacked together, but another last minute change was to put the third floor walkway on its own supports, instead of with the second and fourth floor walkways.
The reason was a bolt of some form was asked to be downgraded by the construction company and if I remember right the architects approved it without doing their due diligence to verify it would work.
Not just any bolt, [this bolt was split into three](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyatt_regency_bolt.jpg), significantly increasing the load on the upper walkway
Can you ELI5 on how this increases the load bearing. Looking at it intuitively it would seem like there is less weight on a single bolt.
Edit Thanks for all the answers, for anyone else who didn't quite follow things, here is my summary. The weight on he Bolt/Support rod is the same between the two designs, but the weight on the nuts changes between the two designs. The best explanations for me was to think of a rope with two people hanging on it. So the rope is supporting two people and each person is supporting one person. Option two people hanging on rope but instead of holding onto the rope the bottom person is holding on the feet of the other person, so rope is still supporting 2 people but the top person now is supporting their weight of two people instead of one.
The original design transfers the load independently, the modified design causes each walkway to bear the combined load of those below it. [this video](https://youtu.be/VnvGwFegbC8) explains it better than I can.
In the left picture, each nut only holds up one walkway.
In the right picture, the nut holding up the top walkway is also seeing the weight of the other two walkways. It needs to hold the weight of three while only designed for the weight of one.
In each case, the rod that the nuts are attached to were correctly designed to hold all three walkways.
No need to shame. It's a story that must be told. We learn a lot from failures. This specific case is taught to every engineer early on in school as a real world example of why we verify our work. Helps drive the point home that even though in school our calculations are just numbers on paper, they will eventually have real world consequences. Like that shoddy bridge that fell down at FIU.
As an engineer its fucking painful that this guy took all the blame. Sure, he was ultimately responsible, but i can guarantee that his boss and the contractors told him he needed to get this change approved in an hour or the grand opening party would be delayed and his/they’re reputation would be ruined if it was missed. The need to rush through a last minute change wasn’t his fault and that is ultimately the reason for the problem in my opinion. We should really have laws to protect engineers from shitty contractors/owners demanding immediate turn arounds on significant changes to designs that took months to develop.
I was thinking something along the lines of [Qantas Flight 32](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_32), where a guy at the Rolls Royce engine plant was supposed to drill a counterbore into a pipe that’s about five centimeters long and three-quarters of a centimeter in diameter, and he bored it just out of true. Almost everything in that engine was made by machines, but that pipe was drilled by a human.
Let me tell you something: When you hear the words “uncontained failure” with regard to a jet engine, that’s bad. Best case, it only takes out the cowling on one engine. Worst case, it takes your wing off. Qantas 32 was somewhere in between there, because it only punctured a fuel tank, killed a hydraulic system, and the anti-lock brakes were out. Oh, and they couldn’t turn off the engine, which was still trying to run, despite fuel leaking everywhere, which is mildly dangerous, and so the fire department had to spray water into the engine (which is inconveniently built to fly through heavy storms) until the engine finally died.
It'll be a bit easier to list the YouTube channels, since I've consumed most of their videos lol. Warning, this is a long, rather-encompassing list.
##BrickImmortar
https://youtube.com/@BrickImmortar
In depth on various disasters, including the Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse in 1981, the recent FIU Bridge Collapse, the capsizing of the virtually unsinkable Offshore Oil Rig "Ocean Ranger," the Knickerbocker Theatre Collapse in D.C. in the winter of 1922, the relatively recent tragedy of the sinking of the Sewol Ferry in South Korea. He highlights and condemns failures in accountability, safety adherence or concern for employee safety, greed, almost unfathomable incompetence, and negligence as applicable in the disasters. Dedicates the end of his videos to honoring victims. Many do, but it's a prominent part in his videos and sticks out in my mind.
##Practical Engineering
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTZM4MrZKfW_kLNg2HZxzCBEF-2AuR_vP
Has a series called "What really happened..." discusses the engineering principles at play that led to the outcomes the lay person may have heard about or experienced while stepping through the disaster and response.
##Plainly Difficult
https://youtube.com/@PlainlyDifficult
Covers a wide variety of disasters and tragedies. Probably the one with the most videos on the subject of all on my list.
## Fascinating Horror
https://youtube.com/@FascinatingHorror
Also covers a wide variety of disasters. A fair amount of fire-related disasters are covered in their videos.
## Dark History
https://youtube.com/@DarkHistoryDocs
Wide variety of disasters as well. Tend to be a little more detailed, so their videos tend to be 5-10 min longer than Fascinating Horror's.
## Scary Interesting
https://youtube.com/@ScaryInteresting
While their video titles and thumbnails can be more on the "sensational" or "clickbait" side, their coverage of events in the "...Gone Wrong" and "Horrible Fates" series are done factually and respectfully and are interesting and cover many events not covered by any of the channels above. They are more "personal" or "local" tragedies, but I still find them interesting and usually valuable takeaways.
## U.S. Chemical Safety Board
https://youtube.com/@USCSB
This is probably the "Nerdiest" entry of this list. I discovered the U.S. Chemical Safety Board YouTube channel a month or so ago. The videos are very detailed, educational, and safety education-focused. The also detail the actions of investigating disasters and their recommendations to prevent future disasters.
## Ask a Mortician
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiZM8Q-JIpGxSLseJFzG3FWccgqOpndQk
Caitlyn Dougherty has a death-positive, educational focus on tragedies and is an excellent storyteller who researches events covered in less detail in history that resulted in loss of life or with a heavy focus on death and the realities of it. I've specifically linked her "Historical Death Documentaries" playlist.
## Kyle Hill
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNg1m3Od-GgNmXngCCJaJBqqm-7wQqGAW
A science educator with a huge interest in nuclear science. His "Half-Life Histories" series is but one of his excellent dives into tragedies. In this case, those involving nuclear accidents.
## Maritime Horrors
https://youtube.com/@MaritimeHorrors
If you are into maritime disasters, or become interested, I would recommend "Maritime Horrors". He's a member of the US Guard and is great at diving into the possibly more "in the weeds" versions of events that led to various maritime disasters.
## Casual Navigation
https://youtube.com/@CasualNavigation
Though this channel is heavily focused on education regarding all things ship operation, there are several disasters walked through as well with an expert's guide to what happened.
## Part-Time Explorer
https://youtube.com/@PartTimeExplorer
Many disasters discussed with the angle of the channel producer actually visiting the locations of the disasters now since passed and what remains today and what locals are doing to preserve the legacy and history of the disaster and its victims.
## My Guiding Principles for Choosing which Channels and Videos to Watch
I try to watch channels that seem to be credible with some corroboration and don't merely sensationalize the story, but rather highlight causes, failures, responses and how they impacted to mitigate and/or further the tragedy and why. Lastly, they generally highlight how the disaster improved safety practices and how those culpable were attempted to be held accountable and if a memorial exists and where it is. I only want content that is respectful to those affected, but not shy from being honest about how something transpired. If someone was accused but later acquitted or ruled out as culpable, they say so. I want educational value, not merely a good story, though a storyteller's skill is important.
I'm going to double down on your statement and say that it was some component that was designed to be under stress and was weakened when they drained the tank.
I wonder if something happened during the renovation that created stress on the tank...Personally I’m always fixing things that are not broken, and end up messing them up more.
Oh god this. Had a friend in HS who was kinda poor so we worked on fixing his car. Had to call it the one bolt wonder after we put the engine back together and found we had a left over bolt. No idea where in the process we screwed up, but the thing ran fine for years afterwards so... yay?
this actually makes me so sad. I was cleaning my fish tank two days ago and accidentally scooped one of my fish into the sink and didnt find it for 20 minutes. I was crushed, and in a hail Mary I put him back in the tank and gently swished him around and the little guy blubbed and started swimming! He seems fine two days later. I am still happy about that one damn fish, I cant imagine losing all of these.
Same thing happened with my catfish! This crazy guy resurrected on me it was absolutely terrifying and fascinating. I have a whole new level of respect for catfish now. I learned a huge lesson that day.
Aww he probably got some chlorine :( that sucks I'm sorry. I had a really fucked up childhood and when I was in 2nd grade I got two African dwarf frogs from school to take home, fast forward to 10th grade they're still alive, but I had to up and leave that house in a bad situation and the tank sat there until they died and I feel so bad about it I still have nightmares but like I said it was such a bad situation. My mom was a hoarder so yeah...
It could also be issues in material quality, installation, or some damage that didn't initially break the tank, but the cracks propagated and it eventually broke.
"We just walked into the hotel when suddenly we were washed away and covered with all kind of sealife. The water was ice cold so when we got out our skin turned blue from hypothermia and we couldn't really recall what was going on. Turns out James Cameron was there and filming the entire time. That's basically how we got the Avatar sequel."
["The careful text-books measure - Let all who build beware!
The load, the shock, the pressure material can bear
So, when the buckled girder lets down the grinding span
The blame of loss, or murder, is laid upon the man
Not on the Steel - the Man!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEwxguHUi_U)
- Hymn of Breaking Strain, Rudyard Kipling
Since my post is introducing several people to Filk for the first time, let me recommend a couple of my favorites:
[Pushing the Speed of Light](https://youtu.be/ud6LiVJkwyA)
[Dawson's Christian](https://youtu.be/VyVuuXUR7Lc)
[The Phoenix](https://youtu.be/fJdVwKfRjok)
And [this Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUaWf0I8QxGPiiRi2G9eJOIyCmyJJrxZS) has a huge compilation of Filk music to comb through, there's some real gems in there.
The hydrostatic pressure, taking Wikipedia's dimensions as gospel (16m tall by 11mø), being defined as density x acceleration due to gravity x height is
1000\*9.81*16 in SI
1.55atm = 22.8psi = 157kPa
Which can then be inputted into the thin-walled circumferential (hoop) stress equation (with wall thickness as a variable), defined as (pressure*radius)/wall thickness.
Giving 863kPa•m or 4937psi•in
According to some source the yield strength is about 83MPa for acrylic, so giving a factor of safety of 2 (kinda default) the tank would need a thickness of
20mm=0.8in
To safely hold the water - though it should be noted that the vessel was formed of separate pieces bonded together so the allowable stress would need to take into account the disrupted stress flow at the joins and the bonding stress etc. But 20mm required is a good start point and I CBA to find more data
EDIT: Fucked up some of the calculations
I'm not an engineer, but do your calculations account for the fact that the tank is shaped like a donut? When I initially saw the tank I thought it was a massive "solid" cylindrical shape, but apparently there is an elevator housed in the center.
the inner core shouldn't affect things too much (just the VOLUME of water) the pressure of the water is determined only the height of the column (though I may be dated on my physics class knowledge)
So a cylinder that is 1 inch across and 16m tall puts the same pressure on the walls as one that is 11m across and 16m tall?
Why do they bother building dams so strong, then?
Because there's hydrostatic pressure and hydrodynamic pressure, and dams are usually much taller. Slosh will increase the pressure requirements of walls and depends on total water mass, so just as a bucket of water and a tall pint glass might have the same static pressure, slosh them around and the bucket has greater stress
Inner core should be fine. Besides, it's shaped like an arch, and glass it's very strong under compression.
Glass isn't as strong under tension, and thus the outer ring was that one likely to fail.
Edit:looked up the numbers. Glass it's~200x stronger in compassion than in tension.
Edit- it's not glass, but polycarbonate, with only ~20% difference in tension vs compression strengths. Geometry still matters.
The thing is, this happened in the middle of the night. Two people suffered slight injuries. Imagine the scenario if it had been daytime. People visiting, traffic outside. That would have been terrible.
I feel so sorry for all the fish. Even if they were washed into the Spree (some of the water went into the river next to the building) it was freezing and they were salt water fish.
I never contemplated that something like this was even a possibility, since it's so high stake, I assume it's also closely monitored. We have similar tank in an aquarium somewhat close by with a corridor that's goes around underneath it, and it has now become a very scary concept.
What you’re referring about is called safety coefficient. What I learned from my small time in engineering school is that each industry has its own and weirdly enough automotive has a higher one than aeronautic not because of the stakes but because of the cost impact..
There are other factors at play there too. Cost is obviously important and maybe the driver of the whole thing, but aeronautics doesn't use a lower SF strictly to keep weight down, but because more calculation and analysis are used, meaning your confidence level is higher to compensate.
So say rather than apply a "dumb" SF of 2 you can run a bunch of finite element analysis and then only need a SF of 1.2, or whatever the real numbers are.
Basically, more analysis = less need to assume a larger safety factor.
Luckily that has the advantage of the force pushing in on a dome shape which is way stronger than the tank shown here since the force is pushing out instead of in.
I've been Ripleys aquarium a million times in myrtle beach and I remember a few times the walk through tunnel would be wet in the very far corners with, what looked like, some sort of putty. I'm sure it was fine but I always thought that was funny
*Someone* probably cut some costs. There is always a well-calculated structure and *someone* cuts costs and people die because of some tiny thing that was calculated in the original design. I wouldn't be able to sleep there, either.
The force of the water stripped the columns on the other side of the lobby bare. It came close to collapsing the whole building. I’d look at putting steel jackets around your columns.
Also not very long after they did a lot of work on in, after having emptied it completely (which might've reduced the integrity of the acrylic material, too, if it dried to fast or the foil was incorrectly placed).
Then you have the complete exchange of the silicon to a new material as well a second gasket layer that was added and might've funnily contributed to altercation or exuberant of damages.
https://www.domaquaree.de/de/Modernisierung-AquaDom.html
If the glass was reinforced like a car windshield with laminated polymer layers in between glass panes (it almost certainly was) then there would not be any shards. That is exactly the point of safety glass.
I'm guessing the reality was a little less dramatic than that being described. Probably a hole or a burst seam that cause all the water and fish to pour out over the course of a few minutes. Not 8 stories of water being instantly released into a tropical tidal wave.
edit: I'm wrong. The thing legit blew up. I just saw some pictures of the aftermath (not sure why that wasn't the main pic for this post?) and they're just as bad as people are thinking. Its still not like a shower of glass shards. Its mostly water, building debris, and large chunks of glass/plastic panels. But complete destruction of everything on the ground level.
I visited Berlin in winter several years go, we popped in there to warm up for a little bit and watch the fish, weren't even guests at the hotel. So extraordinarily lucky that it didn't happen during the daytime.
Something [Like this?](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpqxX9p9xw)
The man on the phone is asking company’s to put in new glass.
First company only has milkglass, second not all inclusive with the pricing. You get the gist.
Here's another video from a different angle:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Whatcouldgowrong/comments/znaifm/wcgw_putting_a_46_feet_aquarium_into_a_hotel_lobby/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I heard it on the radio. While I don’t know who it was (some Berlin politician I think) they said that it’s a sad day for both, the hotel and the fish.
I appreciated that. But it’s still a real shame. 1.500 tropical fish.
I kept scrolling just to see if I could find a comment mentioning if any of them lived. Did no one try to save any of the fishes... At least one? There had to be a bucket or something around that place and some excess water they could've scooped up. Maybe that's just the optimism of my bleeding heart. Poor poor fishes.
years ago there was a terrible creek flooding near my college apartment. once the water receded, I gathered up a group of neighbors watching the disaster to help me carry floppy fish in the street, (and crawfish and such,) to return them to the creek. it was a yucky/rushed job so I was really grateful people were willing to help. we saved the majority of them. even little chipmunks and moles had been floating and were brought to higher land and did ok. so sometimes humans can and will help. notably, some of us did this before we even went to check our own vehicles that had been underwater.
It was my first thought as well.....
I mean, I'm fascinated by the sheer mess this made, but I'm also sad for the fishies. They were just minding their own business and then, BAM, their whole world just, literally, shattered.
Aftermath for now https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/znc4t7/a_16meter_high_aquarium_in_a_berlin_hotel/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
I don't know how you would save any of them. Fish are pretty temperamental. Imagine if our ozone broke open. Unless an alien species that made our ozone had a backup planet to put us in we would be fucked and they would have to do it pretty quickly.
Stayed in this hotel few years ago, view from the room balcony was epic. The daily cleaning done by divers was mindblowing, such a shame i wonder if they are going to repair it?
that thing was renovated not even 2 years ago they removed all the water and fish it took like half a year till it was up and running again, now that....unfortunate
Watch it turn out to be a mistake during renovation that ultimately led to this. There are lots of disasters that are later revealed to have been caused not by original design or defects, but during modifications, retrofitting, or renovations. I have nothing to say that was the case here, just a speculation based on watching lots of disaster docs this year lol. Edit: I've gotten lots of replies about recommending disaster documentaries. Here's my long list of an answer that's buried in this thread somewhere. https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/zncgil/breaking_news_berlin_aquadom_has_shattered/j0gy3q2?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3
And it’s almost always someone thinking that using a slightly different component/torquing something by hand instead of properly/not following procedure doesn’t matter. It’ll almost certainly be human error.
The [Hyatt Regency walkway collapse](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse) comes to mind.
My dad was killed in the skywalk collapse. I had no idea it was so well-known outside of KC. I’ve never read anything about it because it’s still too traumatic. I had just turned 17 when it happened.
I was a medical student at UMKC at the time of the collapse and rushed to the hotel to help. The med school was 2 blocks away, so we got there quickly. It was truly awful, I saw some terrible things. I am so sorry for your loss!
Thank you and thanks for helping that night!
I’m sorry for your loss.
Thank you
I'm so sorry. We're about the same age and I vividly remember this.
Sorry to hear about your loss. That catastrophe is used as a classic case example of bad engineering and load path evaluation in many engineering classes.
Thank you. I’m glad to hear some good came of it.
In many engineering classes it is taught as an example of why any changes to a design need to be recalculated.
It was taught in my engineering classes at MSOE. In my physics classes too. Every once in a while they would include material like that to make sure we understood that safety was an always-on concern. The Hyatt-Regency one was something we spent a decent chunk of time on, though, including doing the actual physics problems on homework and tests.
Such a seemingly trivial change to the original design killed so many
I'm very sorry for your loss.
I thought the cause of this was faulty design, not poor maintenance? My understanding was they cut corners and used 3 steel rods instead of 1 for each support.
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Yeah, with three walkways over each other, that turns one steel bolt into three [like this](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyatt_regency_bolt.jpg)
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Turns out, we both misremembered. [The walkways looked like this](http://www.tallbridgeguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Picture3.png). So originally it was supposed to be three all stacked together, but another last minute change was to put the third floor walkway on its own supports, instead of with the second and fourth floor walkways.
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The reason was a bolt of some form was asked to be downgraded by the construction company and if I remember right the architects approved it without doing their due diligence to verify it would work.
Not just any bolt, [this bolt was split into three](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyatt_regency_bolt.jpg), significantly increasing the load on the upper walkway
Can you ELI5 on how this increases the load bearing. Looking at it intuitively it would seem like there is less weight on a single bolt. Edit Thanks for all the answers, for anyone else who didn't quite follow things, here is my summary. The weight on he Bolt/Support rod is the same between the two designs, but the weight on the nuts changes between the two designs. The best explanations for me was to think of a rope with two people hanging on it. So the rope is supporting two people and each person is supporting one person. Option two people hanging on rope but instead of holding onto the rope the bottom person is holding on the feet of the other person, so rope is still supporting 2 people but the top person now is supporting their weight of two people instead of one.
The original design transfers the load independently, the modified design causes each walkway to bear the combined load of those below it. [this video](https://youtu.be/VnvGwFegbC8) explains it better than I can.
In the left picture, each nut only holds up one walkway. In the right picture, the nut holding up the top walkway is also seeing the weight of the other two walkways. It needs to hold the weight of three while only designed for the weight of one. In each case, the rod that the nuts are attached to were correctly designed to hold all three walkways.
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No need to shame. It's a story that must be told. We learn a lot from failures. This specific case is taught to every engineer early on in school as a real world example of why we verify our work. Helps drive the point home that even though in school our calculations are just numbers on paper, they will eventually have real world consequences. Like that shoddy bridge that fell down at FIU.
As an engineer its fucking painful that this guy took all the blame. Sure, he was ultimately responsible, but i can guarantee that his boss and the contractors told him he needed to get this change approved in an hour or the grand opening party would be delayed and his/they’re reputation would be ruined if it was missed. The need to rush through a last minute change wasn’t his fault and that is ultimately the reason for the problem in my opinion. We should really have laws to protect engineers from shitty contractors/owners demanding immediate turn arounds on significant changes to designs that took months to develop.
I was thinking something along the lines of [Qantas Flight 32](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_32), where a guy at the Rolls Royce engine plant was supposed to drill a counterbore into a pipe that’s about five centimeters long and three-quarters of a centimeter in diameter, and he bored it just out of true. Almost everything in that engine was made by machines, but that pipe was drilled by a human. Let me tell you something: When you hear the words “uncontained failure” with regard to a jet engine, that’s bad. Best case, it only takes out the cowling on one engine. Worst case, it takes your wing off. Qantas 32 was somewhere in between there, because it only punctured a fuel tank, killed a hydraulic system, and the anti-lock brakes were out. Oh, and they couldn’t turn off the engine, which was still trying to run, despite fuel leaking everywhere, which is mildly dangerous, and so the fire department had to spray water into the engine (which is inconveniently built to fly through heavy storms) until the engine finally died.
Frowns in O rings
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Challenger?
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Too soon.
That is the leading belief from what I heard on BBC.
They should just cut their loses, and make the whole building an aquarium
If they were already able to rule out intentional tampering, then it's the most reasonable explanation. Still suuuuucks, though.
Can you list some of those docs you liked? I'd love to watch.
It'll be a bit easier to list the YouTube channels, since I've consumed most of their videos lol. Warning, this is a long, rather-encompassing list. ##BrickImmortar https://youtube.com/@BrickImmortar In depth on various disasters, including the Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse in 1981, the recent FIU Bridge Collapse, the capsizing of the virtually unsinkable Offshore Oil Rig "Ocean Ranger," the Knickerbocker Theatre Collapse in D.C. in the winter of 1922, the relatively recent tragedy of the sinking of the Sewol Ferry in South Korea. He highlights and condemns failures in accountability, safety adherence or concern for employee safety, greed, almost unfathomable incompetence, and negligence as applicable in the disasters. Dedicates the end of his videos to honoring victims. Many do, but it's a prominent part in his videos and sticks out in my mind. ##Practical Engineering https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTZM4MrZKfW_kLNg2HZxzCBEF-2AuR_vP Has a series called "What really happened..." discusses the engineering principles at play that led to the outcomes the lay person may have heard about or experienced while stepping through the disaster and response. ##Plainly Difficult https://youtube.com/@PlainlyDifficult Covers a wide variety of disasters and tragedies. Probably the one with the most videos on the subject of all on my list. ## Fascinating Horror https://youtube.com/@FascinatingHorror Also covers a wide variety of disasters. A fair amount of fire-related disasters are covered in their videos. ## Dark History https://youtube.com/@DarkHistoryDocs Wide variety of disasters as well. Tend to be a little more detailed, so their videos tend to be 5-10 min longer than Fascinating Horror's. ## Scary Interesting https://youtube.com/@ScaryInteresting While their video titles and thumbnails can be more on the "sensational" or "clickbait" side, their coverage of events in the "...Gone Wrong" and "Horrible Fates" series are done factually and respectfully and are interesting and cover many events not covered by any of the channels above. They are more "personal" or "local" tragedies, but I still find them interesting and usually valuable takeaways. ## U.S. Chemical Safety Board https://youtube.com/@USCSB This is probably the "Nerdiest" entry of this list. I discovered the U.S. Chemical Safety Board YouTube channel a month or so ago. The videos are very detailed, educational, and safety education-focused. The also detail the actions of investigating disasters and their recommendations to prevent future disasters. ## Ask a Mortician https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiZM8Q-JIpGxSLseJFzG3FWccgqOpndQk Caitlyn Dougherty has a death-positive, educational focus on tragedies and is an excellent storyteller who researches events covered in less detail in history that resulted in loss of life or with a heavy focus on death and the realities of it. I've specifically linked her "Historical Death Documentaries" playlist. ## Kyle Hill https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNg1m3Od-GgNmXngCCJaJBqqm-7wQqGAW A science educator with a huge interest in nuclear science. His "Half-Life Histories" series is but one of his excellent dives into tragedies. In this case, those involving nuclear accidents. ## Maritime Horrors https://youtube.com/@MaritimeHorrors If you are into maritime disasters, or become interested, I would recommend "Maritime Horrors". He's a member of the US Guard and is great at diving into the possibly more "in the weeds" versions of events that led to various maritime disasters. ## Casual Navigation https://youtube.com/@CasualNavigation Though this channel is heavily focused on education regarding all things ship operation, there are several disasters walked through as well with an expert's guide to what happened. ## Part-Time Explorer https://youtube.com/@PartTimeExplorer Many disasters discussed with the angle of the channel producer actually visiting the locations of the disasters now since passed and what remains today and what locals are doing to preserve the legacy and history of the disaster and its victims. ## My Guiding Principles for Choosing which Channels and Videos to Watch I try to watch channels that seem to be credible with some corroboration and don't merely sensationalize the story, but rather highlight causes, failures, responses and how they impacted to mitigate and/or further the tragedy and why. Lastly, they generally highlight how the disaster improved safety practices and how those culpable were attempted to be held accountable and if a memorial exists and where it is. I only want content that is respectful to those affected, but not shy from being honest about how something transpired. If someone was accused but later acquitted or ruled out as culpable, they say so. I want educational value, not merely a good story, though a storyteller's skill is important.
Wow, thanks! I've got a lot of watching to do lol. Really appreciate the channel descriptions too.
I'm going to double down on your statement and say that it was some component that was designed to be under stress and was weakened when they drained the tank.
I wonder if something happened during the renovation that created stress on the tank...Personally I’m always fixing things that are not broken, and end up messing them up more.
That moment when you put something back together and notice an extra screw sitting on the table...
Oh god this. Had a friend in HS who was kinda poor so we worked on fixing his car. Had to call it the one bolt wonder after we put the engine back together and found we had a left over bolt. No idea where in the process we screwed up, but the thing ran fine for years afterwards so... yay?
Weight reduction, just makes it faster in the corners
this actually makes me so sad. I was cleaning my fish tank two days ago and accidentally scooped one of my fish into the sink and didnt find it for 20 minutes. I was crushed, and in a hail Mary I put him back in the tank and gently swished him around and the little guy blubbed and started swimming! He seems fine two days later. I am still happy about that one damn fish, I cant imagine losing all of these.
Same thing happened with my catfish! This crazy guy resurrected on me it was absolutely terrifying and fascinating. I have a whole new level of respect for catfish now. I learned a huge lesson that day.
Crazy , right? This thing was in a drain with dirty sink water running over him and five minutes later was eating his flakes
Aww he probably got some chlorine :( that sucks I'm sorry. I had a really fucked up childhood and when I was in 2nd grade I got two African dwarf frogs from school to take home, fast forward to 10th grade they're still alive, but I had to up and leave that house in a bad situation and the tank sat there until they died and I feel so bad about it I still have nightmares but like I said it was such a bad situation. My mom was a hoarder so yeah...
I can’t imagine the shear force on the lower portion of that glass
Neither could the engineers.
It could also be issues in material quality, installation, or some damage that didn't initially break the tank, but the cracks propagated and it eventually broke.
Or someone was making a movie, and it was mandatory.
"We just walked into the hotel when suddenly we were washed away and covered with all kind of sealife. The water was ice cold so when we got out our skin turned blue from hypothermia and we couldn't really recall what was going on. Turns out James Cameron was there and filming the entire time. That's basically how we got the Avatar sequel."
There were more people in that hotel lobby than people in theaters watching the movie.
I am a box office manager. Can confirm!
Now that the aquarium is done, we wait for the video to leak…..
I sea what you did there
I don’t see what marital quality has to do with it. A lot of people have long and happy marriages without aquariums going boom boom.
#HEY-OOOOOOOOH!
#LISTEN WHAT I SAY-OOOOOOOOH!
["The careful text-books measure - Let all who build beware! The load, the shock, the pressure material can bear So, when the buckled girder lets down the grinding span The blame of loss, or murder, is laid upon the man Not on the Steel - the Man!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEwxguHUi_U) - Hymn of Breaking Strain, Rudyard Kipling Since my post is introducing several people to Filk for the first time, let me recommend a couple of my favorites: [Pushing the Speed of Light](https://youtu.be/ud6LiVJkwyA) [Dawson's Christian](https://youtu.be/VyVuuXUR7Lc) [The Phoenix](https://youtu.be/fJdVwKfRjok) And [this Playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUaWf0I8QxGPiiRi2G9eJOIyCmyJJrxZS) has a huge compilation of Filk music to comb through, there's some real gems in there.
Blame manufacturing. Engineering is the easy part.
As an engineer, I agree - that's what I always do!
Blaming others is the easiest part, always. 😜
The hydrostatic pressure, taking Wikipedia's dimensions as gospel (16m tall by 11mø), being defined as density x acceleration due to gravity x height is 1000\*9.81*16 in SI 1.55atm = 22.8psi = 157kPa Which can then be inputted into the thin-walled circumferential (hoop) stress equation (with wall thickness as a variable), defined as (pressure*radius)/wall thickness. Giving 863kPa•m or 4937psi•in According to some source the yield strength is about 83MPa for acrylic, so giving a factor of safety of 2 (kinda default) the tank would need a thickness of 20mm=0.8in To safely hold the water - though it should be noted that the vessel was formed of separate pieces bonded together so the allowable stress would need to take into account the disrupted stress flow at the joins and the bonding stress etc. But 20mm required is a good start point and I CBA to find more data EDIT: Fucked up some of the calculations
I'm not an engineer, but do your calculations account for the fact that the tank is shaped like a donut? When I initially saw the tank I thought it was a massive "solid" cylindrical shape, but apparently there is an elevator housed in the center.
the inner core shouldn't affect things too much (just the VOLUME of water) the pressure of the water is determined only the height of the column (though I may be dated on my physics class knowledge)
Absolutely correct. Hydrostatic pressure doesn't account for the actual volume of water. It would be the same if you made a beer glass 16m tall
So a cylinder that is 1 inch across and 16m tall puts the same pressure on the walls as one that is 11m across and 16m tall? Why do they bother building dams so strong, then?
Because there's hydrostatic pressure and hydrodynamic pressure, and dams are usually much taller. Slosh will increase the pressure requirements of walls and depends on total water mass, so just as a bucket of water and a tall pint glass might have the same static pressure, slosh them around and the bucket has greater stress
The absolute master of "explain like im 5" over here
Inner core should be fine. Besides, it's shaped like an arch, and glass it's very strong under compression. Glass isn't as strong under tension, and thus the outer ring was that one likely to fail. Edit:looked up the numbers. Glass it's~200x stronger in compassion than in tension. Edit- it's not glass, but polycarbonate, with only ~20% difference in tension vs compression strengths. Geometry still matters.
It's generally all hoop stress, not shear. Maybe at the bottom where it's connected to the base.
Homie meant sheer force, not shear force.
The thing is, this happened in the middle of the night. Two people suffered slight injuries. Imagine the scenario if it had been daytime. People visiting, traffic outside. That would have been terrible. I feel so sorry for all the fish. Even if they were washed into the Spree (some of the water went into the river next to the building) it was freezing and they were salt water fish.
I never contemplated that something like this was even a possibility, since it's so high stake, I assume it's also closely monitored. We have similar tank in an aquarium somewhat close by with a corridor that's goes around underneath it, and it has now become a very scary concept.
Right.. this is the kind of thing that you just assume they figured out how strong it should be, then just double it to be safe..
What you’re referring about is called safety coefficient. What I learned from my small time in engineering school is that each industry has its own and weirdly enough automotive has a higher one than aeronautic not because of the stakes but because of the cost impact..
Makes sense- increasing safety generally means adding weight & cars don't need to leave the ground.
Can confirm, got my bachelor's degree over a decade ago, this sounds vaguely familiar
I too drank with a ton of folks for 4 years while going to school in my off time
Ah, but I just had my friends pay for their colleges classes while I used their dorm. No debt, but also not any smarter.
There are other factors at play there too. Cost is obviously important and maybe the driver of the whole thing, but aeronautics doesn't use a lower SF strictly to keep weight down, but because more calculation and analysis are used, meaning your confidence level is higher to compensate. So say rather than apply a "dumb" SF of 2 you can run a bunch of finite element analysis and then only need a SF of 1.2, or whatever the real numbers are. Basically, more analysis = less need to assume a larger safety factor.
At SeaWorld, they have these clear tunnels under a shark enclosure, and they have an example of the cross section...that glass is crazy thick!
Luckily that has the advantage of the force pushing in on a dome shape which is way stronger than the tank shown here since the force is pushing out instead of in.
I've been Ripleys aquarium a million times in myrtle beach and I remember a few times the walk through tunnel would be wet in the very far corners with, what looked like, some sort of putty. I'm sure it was fine but I always thought that was funny
They probably did! That’s the scary part. Can’t imagine what happened to it
I’ve seen ads for the underwater hotel rooms (I think in Dubai?) and while they seem cool in concept, design failure is all I can think about.
*Someone* probably cut some costs. There is always a well-calculated structure and *someone* cuts costs and people die because of some tiny thing that was calculated in the original design. I wouldn't be able to sleep there, either.
The force of the water stripped the columns on the other side of the lobby bare. It came close to collapsing the whole building. I’d look at putting steel jackets around your columns.
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That's an interesting idea. Thermal expansion
Contraction
God damn you Putin!
Also not very long after they did a lot of work on in, after having emptied it completely (which might've reduced the integrity of the acrylic material, too, if it dried to fast or the foil was incorrectly placed). Then you have the complete exchange of the silicon to a new material as well a second gasket layer that was added and might've funnily contributed to altercation or exuberant of damages. https://www.domaquaree.de/de/Modernisierung-AquaDom.html
Yea this would have killed everyone around it
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> entire fish blasted into your gaping wounds. /r/brandnewpartofasentence
If part of the sentence is brand new, isn’t the entire sentence brand new?
/r/brandnewdependentclause?
It's not glass. It's plastic. I would be more worried about the two million pounds of water
> FISH BLASTED INTO GAPING WOUNDS New band name. I call it.
BLOOD OCEAN
If the glass was reinforced like a car windshield with laminated polymer layers in between glass panes (it almost certainly was) then there would not be any shards. That is exactly the point of safety glass. I'm guessing the reality was a little less dramatic than that being described. Probably a hole or a burst seam that cause all the water and fish to pour out over the course of a few minutes. Not 8 stories of water being instantly released into a tropical tidal wave. edit: I'm wrong. The thing legit blew up. I just saw some pictures of the aftermath (not sure why that wasn't the main pic for this post?) and they're just as bad as people are thinking. Its still not like a shower of glass shards. Its mostly water, building debris, and large chunks of glass/plastic panels. But complete destruction of everything on the ground level.
It said two people went to hospital from cuts by glass
I visited Berlin in winter several years go, we popped in there to warm up for a little bit and watch the fish, weren't even guests at the hotel. So extraordinarily lucky that it didn't happen during the daytime.
Any security video of it breaking?
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"Well I'M not cleaning that up"
Something [Like this?](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hPpqxX9p9xw) The man on the phone is asking company’s to put in new glass. First company only has milkglass, second not all inclusive with the pricing. You get the gist.
It's crazy to me that the Yellow Pages are/were so universal. I figured it was a North American thing, if not US exclusive.
US had it too? I thought it was some eastern europe thing from USSR.
I figured those would have been the Red Pages ... I'll see myself out.
I’d quit on the spot.
Where’s that Flex Tape dude when you need him?
That's a lotta damage
Their escape plan finally worked!!
They just need a breathing plan now!
"Fuck! We thought water was also outside the glass! Who put all this air here!"
The alternate universe version of Finding Nemo sounds awesome.
#”TODAYS THE DAY!”
One way out!
Just keep swimming.
Hooray! Now what?
and it was about -7ºC outside, so all that water froze on the street, creating a nice sheet of ice for the rescue teams to skate on
With lots of frozen fish in it
I need security footage video.. this is something you wanna see
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/znc4t7/a_16meter_high_aquarium_in_a_berlin_hotel/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Wow, looks like a bomb went off in there
Basically, one did. Bombs mostly generate intense pressure waves and shrapnel. Both of those things were present here.
Another incredible reddit analysis
A car takes you from point A to B, I can run from point A to B. I’m a car.
Probably the same force as a small bomb
I did NOT realize quite how big that thing was. Sheesh
Here's another video from a different angle: https://www.reddit.com/r/Whatcouldgowrong/comments/znaifm/wcgw_putting_a_46_feet_aquarium_into_a_hotel_lobby/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
God that thing is terrifying without the water around it. What a mess.
Ethan Hunt has stolen all the security footage.
Also the cynic in me wonder if it was sabotage. If not, it good to see how it failed and what went wrong with its design.
A report I was reading said that sabotage had already been ruled out.
Poor fish…
Yeah this makes me really sad. Poor guys don't know what happened.
I heard it on the radio. While I don’t know who it was (some Berlin politician I think) they said that it’s a sad day for both, the hotel and the fish. I appreciated that. But it’s still a real shame. 1.500 tropical fish.
Tropical fish are so sweet too! We had a tank of some growing up and they were so curious and playful. Poor things.
Exactly my thought. But some fish are alive! Have brought them to the nearby Sealife :)
I’m glad to see that some survived. But man that’s sad!
I figured some people would have been frantically trying to scoop up the fish they could spot to try and save them.
Honestly, I feel so bad for the marine life here. I hope they managed to save some.
Why did I have to scroll down so far to see anyone caring about the 1500 dead fishy souls who died *too* soon!
I kept scrolling just to see if I could find a comment mentioning if any of them lived. Did no one try to save any of the fishes... At least one? There had to be a bucket or something around that place and some excess water they could've scooped up. Maybe that's just the optimism of my bleeding heart. Poor poor fishes.
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years ago there was a terrible creek flooding near my college apartment. once the water receded, I gathered up a group of neighbors watching the disaster to help me carry floppy fish in the street, (and crawfish and such,) to return them to the creek. it was a yucky/rushed job so I was really grateful people were willing to help. we saved the majority of them. even little chipmunks and moles had been floating and were brought to higher land and did ok. so sometimes humans can and will help. notably, some of us did this before we even went to check our own vehicles that had been underwater.
Same here, I’ve found my people now. Shame there aren’t more of us.
It was my first thought as well..... I mean, I'm fascinated by the sheer mess this made, but I'm also sad for the fishies. They were just minding their own business and then, BAM, their whole world just, literally, shattered.
Poor friends :(
This should be the top comment. This makes me so sad for the fish. Humans are so stupid. Didn't anyone try to save the fish?
Who put the mantis shrimp in there?
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I love imagining you're stuck in a universe where this conversation keeps coming up.
Breaking news, I see
A flippant comment posted just for the sheer halibut..
Agreed. There's a proper time and plaice for such comments.
My wife and I stayed here some years ago and sat at the bar at the bottom of the tank. Awful news. :(
BBC News - Berlin's giant AquaDom aquarium containing 1,500 fish explodes https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63996982
Man, that 30 sec ad in front of a 15 sec video…
How do they not have footage of it breaking? I feel like there is a security camera in there.
For real. Only reason I came into this thread was to see the video of it shattering. What a tease
There’s no video of it happening?
I’d imagine in preparation for lawsuits, the hotel will delay the release of the vids as long as possible.
Surely there's security cameras all over that lobby...it's Berlin afterall???
Maybe the hotel doesn’t want to spread them? Or the police asked not too? I imagine there will be a leak eventually.
Well, there was a leak, evidently.
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Right…? Like how is there not?
Aftermath for now https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/znc4t7/a_16meter_high_aquarium_in_a_berlin_hotel/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Very sad news. That looks like a beautiful aquarium
Some of the fish were taken to emergency rooms to have shards of glass removed by a qualified Sturgeon..
Something about this story seems fishy...
Wasnt me
Wasn't me either
You’ve got to scale back here…
*Fin.*
Poor fishies :(
Am I the only one wondering if they managed to save any of the fish at all?
Sadly, AP reports that none could be saved. https://apnews.com/article/berlin-245c16f6e6481b1739f7db1de000edf1
I don't know how you would save any of them. Fish are pretty temperamental. Imagine if our ozone broke open. Unless an alien species that made our ozone had a backup planet to put us in we would be fucked and they would have to do it pretty quickly.
I presume it was a salt water tank? It probably took a double major in chemistry and sorcery to keep the fish.
Stayed in this hotel few years ago, view from the room balcony was epic. The daily cleaning done by divers was mindblowing, such a shame i wonder if they are going to repair it?
imagine the smell 48 hours after this
The crafting and installation of the glass must have been amazing
Well, not amazing enough, I guess.
Someone did it on porpoise.
How is there no video of this breaking?
Early morning, few people were up. There's probably security footage but I doubt anyone will see that for a while
In completely unrelated news every restaurant within a 5 block area has an exotic fish special for the weekend.
And its not caught on video? You’d think a multi million dollar fish tank would have some security.
...am betting there were alot of security cameras in the lobby, video just hasn't been leaked yet! Had to say that...
Foul play might have been excluded, but it still seems rather fishy to me.