I'll give you one last explanation. You can have the last word, I value my time, and I think I have proven beyond a reasonable doubt all my assertions.
"Yeah, if the NS pipe was buried.. was it? Oh, no, it wasn't." You are the one that just provided an example of an explosion (off the ground might I add [which you also correctly explained the further you are from something the less damage it does (and to be ultra clear, when you take out the weight bearing columns on the ground floor of a building, it falls down. notice the whole building didn't fall initially, just the side where the weight-bearing columns were taken out)]) which caused a crater, so you admit regardless of what type of crater it is, (displaced/ "vaporised" (your words) an explosion over the ground can cause a crater.
"When a pipe ruptures due to internal pressure build up, it looks like this" If you think that is the only outcome of internal pressure build-ups of pipes, then you clearly know nothing about the industry. Just google natural gas transmission pipelines and how "loss of containment" occurs due to E.g mechanical failure or operational/human error (internal over pressures). You will quickly understand what safety equipment is required and what shut off valves and blow out preventers are used, for different pressurised pipes. The higher pressure you go, the more likely you will get a much more devastating rupture than what you are trying to sell me as the only possible outcome of "internal pressure build up". It's just not respectable to try to feed me with the only possible end result being the pictures you post. If you told that to anyone in the industry, they would laugh at you. The pictures you are showing is likely due from the pipes being overpressurised, however we are talking about 1200bar compared to their usual 200bar (not just slightly over).
"Theres a section of pipe missing, torn at the welds, and a crater." exactly like the video I showed you.
"Sure, there may not have been a "fireball explosion", but nonetheless, an explosive force, ie, the buildup of gas under the earth and under the pipe provided an explosive force external to the pipe." you are just making things up, and you are completely disregarding the fact that natural gas pipelines are well known to cause craters not just from "leaks" which is what you are trying to suggest, but for many reasons, some of which I have posted multiple times, e.g: mechanical failure or operational/human error (internal over pressures) [which is what the literature describes]. I understand this destroys your theory, but that is just what the scientific literature lists as potential causes of craters caused by "loss of containment" from natural gas pipelines.
"Explain to me how pressure built inside the pipe at just that section inbetween the torn welds? If the pressure inside the pipe was enough to make the entire vessel rupture, it would have destroyed the entire pipe... not just one section..." This tells me you must be young. It's an amateur question to be asking. The whole reason PIGs exist is for maintenance to prevent this exact occurrence. Corrosion, ground shifting, earthquakes, etc etc can all jeopardise the integrity of the pipeline (and to localised sections, that is why the PIG examines the shape and integrity of the pipe the whole way along), this can cause localised weak links and when the pressure does build up for many reasons, e.g human error, it will destroy the weakest part of the pipeline first. In other words: The effects of internal pressure and geometric imperfection of the pipe walls on the axial stresses and the evolution of the maximum compressive strain, at the critical pipeline section for an increasing relative axial ground deformation will result in an explosion causing a crater and or a rupture as seen in the above video:
