World's Largest Freestanding Cylindrical Aquarium Bursts In Berlin (theguardian.com) 64
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A freestanding cylindrical aquarium housing about 1,500 exotic fish burst in Berlin on Friday morning, causing a wave of devastation in and around the tourist attraction. Glass, chairs, tables and other debris were swept out of the DomAquaree complex, which includes a Radisson hotel, a museum, shops and restaurants, as 1 million liters of water poured out of the 14-meter-high (46ft) tank shortly before 6am.
Police said two people sustained injuries from falling shards of glass and had to be taken to hospital. None of the animals inside the saltwater aquarium, which contained clownfish, teira batfish and palette surgeonfish, survived. [...] Material fatigue was the likeliest cause of the incident, Berlin's interior minister said on Friday afternoon. "Investigations are of course not yet complete, but first signs suggest we are dealing with material fatigue," Iris Spranger told the DPA news agency.
First opened in 2003, the aquarium was overhauled as recently as 2020. A spokesperson for the company that owns the structure said additional insulation was added and the glass cylinder polished as part of the maintenance works. Earlier in the day, there had been speculation that overnight temperatures of as low as -10C (14F) had caused a crack in the glass, which is 18cm (7in) thick at the top and 22cm at the bottom of the cylindrical structure. Operators said the aquarium was the biggest cylindrical tank in the world, containing 1,500 tropical fish of 80 different species before the incident. One of the highlights of the attraction was a 10-minute elevator ride through the tank, which would have taken place at 10am. According to the city's fire department, only about 30 of the roughly 1,500 fish were saved after the incident. Berlin's zoo has offered to take them in.
Police said two people sustained injuries from falling shards of glass and had to be taken to hospital. None of the animals inside the saltwater aquarium, which contained clownfish, teira batfish and palette surgeonfish, survived. [...] Material fatigue was the likeliest cause of the incident, Berlin's interior minister said on Friday afternoon. "Investigations are of course not yet complete, but first signs suggest we are dealing with material fatigue," Iris Spranger told the DPA news agency.
First opened in 2003, the aquarium was overhauled as recently as 2020. A spokesperson for the company that owns the structure said additional insulation was added and the glass cylinder polished as part of the maintenance works. Earlier in the day, there had been speculation that overnight temperatures of as low as -10C (14F) had caused a crack in the glass, which is 18cm (7in) thick at the top and 22cm at the bottom of the cylindrical structure. Operators said the aquarium was the biggest cylindrical tank in the world, containing 1,500 tropical fish of 80 different species before the incident. One of the highlights of the attraction was a 10-minute elevator ride through the tank, which would have taken place at 10am. According to the city's fire department, only about 30 of the roughly 1,500 fish were saved after the incident. Berlin's zoo has offered to take them in.
Re: Hate to say it (Score:1)
Re:Hate to say it (Score:5, Funny)
More proof of late stage capitalism's failures. You don't see large fish tanks in communist countries.
That's because in Communist countries, desperate peasants would have eaten all of the fish.
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More proof of late stage capitalism's failures. You don't see large fish tanks in communist countries.
That's because in Communist countries, desperate peasants would have eaten all of the fish.
I get the joke but...
Communist countries tend to have the biggest and most ostentatious monuments to ego and vanity, usually because a despotic leader can "motivate" their people to build it and don't ever need to worry about justifying the cost to anyone.
This fish tank wasn't really that ostentatious (not even for the reserved Germans).
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Hahah rsilvergun sunk so low even he's ashamed to post under his real handle.
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It's just an AC troll posting with rsilvergun's sig. Like the trolls using variations of his name.
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OK so communist countries don't have nice things, and that's a failure of capitalism?
Correction (Score:3)
World's FORMER Largest Freestanding Cylindrical Aquarium Bursts In Berlin
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Kuroshio Sea - 2nd Largest Aquarium Tank in the World
https://www.iliketowastemytime... [iliketowastemytime.com]
The land of the Rising Sun shall rise again.
(What is it with former axis countries and their need to cage fish in "water camps"?)
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How does this work gramatically?
"bursts" is in the present tense, at the moment of bursting it definitely wasn't former.
Changing it to
> World's former Largest Freestanding Cylindrical Aquarium Burst In Berlin
That reads as "the second largest aquarium burst" , also implying that the change to former wasn't long ago and that it might still be in people's minds.
Any language expert around?
Re: Correction (Score:1)
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So, world's largest now former aquarium bursts?
Just having fun, please do not take this too seriously.
Why did they let it freeze? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why did they let it freeze? (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably temperature differences. The tank was thick at the bottom and thinner at the top, plus quite tall. It it difficult to keep it evenly heated on the inside and outside over all of that surface area. Guessing it was a stress fracture, warm in one area, cold in another, could not expand/contract evenly and cracked, then the water pressure took over.
Re: Why did they let it freeze? (Score:3)
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The sound was more like "sploosh".
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Re:Why did they let it freeze? (Score:5, Informative)
That's why many big tanks use acrylic instead of glass. Acrylic has higher tensile strength, lower thermal conductivity, lower thermal expansion, and fractures don't propagate as easily.
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The tank in Berlin was acrylic.
Re:Why did they let it freeze? (Score:5, Funny)
> It it difficult to keep it evenly heated on the inside and outside over all of that surface area.
If only they could have filled the tank some sort of fluid with a high specific heat capacity. Then they could have added pumps on the inside to circulate said fluid.
Or maybe I'm just thinking too radically for this site.
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Have you ever been in a swimming pool? Was the water temperature even throughout?
Re:Why did they let it freeze? (Score:5, Funny)
We get it. You pee in the pool instead of getting out to use the washroom.
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You would think it would be encased in a climate-controlled environment for that reason. Were they skimping on the heat, or was the building insulation poor enough that the central heating couldn't keep up?
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Heat rises, right up to the thinner area at the top. Of course the thinner area of the tank that sees more heat will want to expand more than the ticker cooler bottom.
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Right but what's your temp delta? Is it 60F at the bottom and 72F at the top? That's not gonna break glass.
The aquarium was built into a hotel lobby.
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Does the heating system blow directly on the tank in some places? Those places are going to have a much bigger temp difference.
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The outdoor temperatures were below freezing., but there is no indication in the article that temperatures were freezing inside the hotel. The tank was indoors, not outside.
The Flappening (Score:2)
I bet there was a lot of flapping around when it happened.
Re: The Flappening (Score:2)
Our bed was shaking.I thought it was an earthquake (Score:2)
Nah. Just a couple of small fish having an early shag downstairs.
It's a bit ironic (Score:2)
...that they called up 100 firefighters to fight a spillage, not a fire.
Re:It's a bit ironic (Score:5, Funny)
who would be the best emergency responders. (Score:2)
Dentists ( see Finding Nemo )
Re:It's a bit ironic (Score:5, Funny)
Probably glaziers.
Preferably, very speedy glaziers.
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Glaziers more at a glacial pace.
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Probably glaziers.
Preferably, very speedy glaziers.
https://twitter.com/Hoofmark19... [twitter.com]
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unclear who would be the best emergency responders. Plumbers? Anglers?
Aquamen.
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Sushi chefs
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Local cats were probably at the scene in a jiffy.
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Not ironic at all. Firefighters are the first responders for all water related incidents which includes things such as burst water mains. I mean it's not like the police can arrest the fish, or the ambulance can come give them mouth to mouth.
Also its a water related incident, you want people on site who are bringing pumps, and drying equipment like large fans (both of which are standard equipment in firetrucks).
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Transparent polycarbonate (Score:3)
Thatâ(TM)s the ticket laddie!
Re:Transparent polycarbonate (Score:4, Informative)
Aluminum. Polycarbonate is already transparent.
Sabotage by an American largest only in the USA ;) (Score:2)
Obvious really...
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The man in charge during construction sounds pretty American to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Seek to the beginning of the video to see what it looks like now.
The Finding Nemo Holiday Special (Score:2)
"Among the 80 types of fish it housed were blue tang and clownfish, two colorful species known from the popular animated movie “Finding Nemo.”"
https://apnews.com/article/ber... [apnews.com]
DO NOT TAP GLASS (Score:2)
Oops. Sorry.
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None - or some survived? (Score:2)
None of the animals inside the saltwater aquarium, which contained clownfish, teira batfish and palette surgeonfish, survived...According to the city's fire department, only about 30 of the roughly 1,500 fish were saved after the incident.
So which is it? None or 30? Would like to think that some did survive but I'm not sure how any would... maybe washed into some kind of depression that ended up an artificial pond.
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Right question: how did they taste?
Actually, a few hundred survived (Score:2)
None of the animals inside the saltwater aquarium, which contained clownfish, teira batfish and palette surgeonfish, survived...According to the city's fire department, only about 30 of the roughly 1,500 fish were saved after the incident.
So which is it? None or 30? Would like to think that some did survive but I'm not sure how any would... maybe washed into some kind of depression that ended up an artificial pond.
Later news said that they were able to save > 600 of the fishes.
Could have Been Worse, But Not for the Fish (Score:2)
Tom Cruise unavailable for comment (Score:2)
Just don't chew it.
Engineering problem found (Score:2)
They have determined the engineering error that caused the tank to fail. Turns out the engineers were doing their calculations in the metric system.