Ive written extensively about the wonders of the mantis shrimp, and they were recently immortalized in a comic by The Oatmeal. But what about their equally awesome, but lesser known cousin, the pistol shrimp? The pistol shrimp is the NOISIEST creature in the ocean. Colonies of them make a distinct snapping noise that overshadows nearly all other sounds throughout the worlds oceans, including the calls of some whales. In fact, they are so loud, their snapping sounds interfere with military and scientific sonar (so much so, that hostile submarines have used large colonies of pistol shrimps to hide!). So how on earth does the pistol shrimp, which can be anywhere from a couple centimeters to a couple inches in length, make such a loud sound? They possess an oversized claw which they close shut quickly enough to move water over 60 mph, creating a cavitation bubble in its wake. This bubble exists for a tiny fraction of a second (between 10 nanoseconds and 300 picoseconds), but it becomes so hot (over 4700°C) that it emits light. Yes, you read that correctly. As a comparison, the surface of the sun reaches around 5,500 °C. The cavitation bubble finally collapses and creates a bang as loud as 218 decibels. As a comparison, the space shuttle launch was as loud as 170~ decibels. Now the next question; why? These shrimp use their super claws to stun prey. The shockwave from the collapse of the shrimps claw is enough to stun small shrimp and fish and kill them without even touching them. They also compete with one another to see who is louder when fighting over mating rights. Overall, this shrimp is pretty awesome. More info: bit.ly/fb56D5 Video: bit.ly/13jEk27 Image credit: Ellen Muller bit.ly/10m0jkZ
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:00:34 +0000
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