On August 28, 1992, a cryogenic tank ruptured in Hokkaido, Japan, and is a textbook case study in the catastrophic consequences of completely isolating a cryogenic vessel.
The explosion occurred in the middle of the night at a food processing factory. The blast destroyed the upper half of the facility, damaged 25 surrounding buildings, and wrecked 39 parked vehicles within a 1,300′ radius. The largest piece of debris—a 5′ wide section of the outer shell head—was thrown 1,100′ from the site.