Bursting Balloons in a Sand Box Reveals the Origin of Mysterious Craters

When we conceive of crater , asteroid collisions are often what make out to mind . But now , thanks to scientist whoexploded balloonsin a sand box , we have a better idea of other ways crater can be formed , like belowground methane explosions , for instance .

Felipe Pacheco - Vázquez , a scientist at Mexico ’s Autonomous University of Puebla , direct the squad behind the projection , and aNew Scientistvideo shows the operation in all its deadening - mo delight .

First , the scientists buried balloons in a backbone box , and then “ set off ” them using a needle . Upon detonation , a dome bulges out of the terra firma like some sort of high - atmospheric pressure geological zit . Then it completely burst forth , actuate what New Scientist call “ surreptitious avalanches , ” whose impulse prompt a tight-fitting , otherworldly pillar of sand to thrust into the air in the midpoint of the site . The depression that ’s formed all around it is what becomes a volcanic crater .

This simulation can help us cipher out the origin of otherwise inscrutable craters — perhaps , buried bombs , methane explosion , ormaars , volcanic crater leave by clandestine admixture of magma and water that stimulate detonation . All these Crater take issue from asteroid craters because the latter pull up stakes a “ brim , ” while these face more like a big sinkhole .

[ New Scientist ]

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