Sympathetic detonation

Sympathetic detonation of explosives takes place when an "acceptor" explosive detonates from the blast of a nearby "donor" explosion, with no interconnection between the donor and acceptor. Sympathetic detonation may be undesirable from the standpoint of the owner of the acceptor munition, as when controlled explosions are used to detonate a minefield, or in the catastrophic chain reactions among munitions during fires on the aircraft carriers US aircraft carriers Forrestal (1967), USS Enterprise (1969) and USS Nimitz (1981). It may be desirable with such explosives as "ditching dynamite", a 50% nitroglycerin shock-sensitive explosive used for commercial excavation without a need for complex interconnection of the individual charges.