Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The Pistol shrimp



It uses its snapping claws for communication and as a "sonic weapon" to knockout it's prey with a heated collapsing bubble traveling at 100Kmh (62 mph). The video states that the resulting temperature momentarily reaches the temperature of the sun. I have found no other source that supports this. National Geographic states the temperature could reach 18,000 farenheit (9982.22 Celcius)

From Wikipedia: "The pistol shrimp snaps a specialized claw shut to create a cavitation wave that generates noise in excess of 180 to 200 decibels relative to 1 μPa at a distance of 1 m, and is capable of killing small fish. The snap can also produce sonoluminescence from a collapsing bubble, also known as cavitation bubble (collapsing bubble). The heat generated by the snap exceeds more than 114 degrees Fahrenheit"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"This implosion causes a shockwave that stuns..." yeah, I dated a guy like that once. He was a pistol, too.

Anonymous said...

uses its snapping claws

its = belonging to it

it's = it is

Anonymous said...

how interesting...