Strange Explosions of the world
Today is all about strange explosions. Splosions. Kablamos. Explationez. We look at 5 of the strangest explosions that will make you reassess your world.
Strange Explosions No. 5.
In 2014 a woman in Barcelona suffered third-degree burns to her legs after the toilet she was sitting on suddenly and terrifyingly exploded. According to police, it was unhygienic conditions in the septic tank below that were to blame. Apparently when the woman turned on the light, a spark ignited the methane fumes below causing a horrific fireball. I’m sure there is a last night’s curry joke in there somewhere. Reports indicate that the woman has since sued the bar for butt-hole damages.
Strange Explosions No.4
Exploding fruit! That’s right, exploding fruit! The Sandbox tree found in Central and South America has a pumpkin shaped fruit, about the size of a fist, that once ripe will explode with enough force to injure a cow! Unbelievably the fruit is considered edible, so if after having half your face blown off, you still decide to eat it you’ll have to contend with severe cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea. Yay!
Strange Explosions No.3
While this one is not technically a strange explosion we just had to take a look. Exploding head syndrome! It is classified as hypnagogic auditory hallucination where the sufferer may inexplicably hear sounds like bombs going off, gun fire, or cymbals. Typically it happens when you’re about to fall asleep or one or two hours into sleep. Kablamo! No warning, nothing, just sudden and terrifying explosions inside your head when you’re at your most relaxed. Subsequent symptoms include acute underwear soiling, random spousal lower back kickings and a complete distrust in reality itself.
Strange Explosions No.2
The Tunguska Event – A large and very strange explosion, which occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Russia in 1908. No one knows for certain what exactly happened but it is the largest impact event in recorded history. It is estimated that 80 million trees were knocked over in a blast radius of 2,150 square kilometres, creating tremors that would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. While the general consensus is an asteroid or comet hit the earth, there are some wild theories going around as to what actually caused the event. Some scientists have speculated that a 10 million ton gas explosion was triggered under the earth’s surface, others have suggested that a chunk of anti-matter fell from space, there’s even a theory that a black hole passed through the earth’s surface! Which is ludicrous considering there is no exit point on the other side of the world but either way what on earth is going on in Russia?
Strange Explosions No 1
A whale of a strange explosion. This one’s a classic! On November 12, 1970 a 7300 kilo sperm whale beached itself at Florence, Oregon in the United States.
One of a series of bizarre details to come out of this incident is that in 1970 Oregon Beaches were technically classified as State Highways, thus leaving this huge problem up to the State Highway division. No one really knew what to do. Burying would clearly be ineffective and no one wanted to cut it up into smaller pieces, so after consulting the United States Navy it was agreed that it should be resolved in the same way a giant boulder is dealt with – with tons and tons of dynamite! 20 cases to be exact!
I would pay money to hear the meeting that took place that day: ‘Well, I can’t see how anything could possibly go wrong by blowing up a giant whale with 20 cases of dynamite. So are we all agreed?’
Hilariously, the head technician admitted that he didn’t actually know how much dynamite would be needed and was advised by an ex-military explosives expert that 20 sticks would be more than enough as opposed to the 20 cases they actually used.
The subsequent blast caused large, bloody chunks to rain all over the nearby town. A car as far as 400 metres away was crushed by falling blubber. It took days to finally clean the surrounding area of all the ejected whale guts.
