There’s a weird thing that happens when whales die. Specifically, they have a tendency to blow up.
According to the Science Times, this is because gasses build up in a dead whale’s body. Or as they put it, “This boosts pressure inside. In the case of a dead whale, because of its blubber, the dead animal ends up floating and inflating. Eventually, the pressure grows to extreme levels and makes the body of the whale explode.”
Don’t believe me? Well, luckily, someone caught it on video.
The video shows a dead whale floating on the ocean’s surface off the California coast. As the group of whale watchers approach the carcass, one of them suggests that the whale might just blow up — and that’s exactly what happens. The whale’s head violently erupts, leading to a massive explosion of blood, seawater and internal organs, including the stomach, spleen and small intestines. While some on board wonder if it’s the result of a great white attack, the true reason is simple: Again, it’s just gas, baby!
One expert quoted by Yahoo! says that this is just all part of the circle of life — an exploded whale provides food for other sea animals. “First the mobile scavengers — large deep-sea sharks, hagfish and others — come in to remove soft tissue and break apart the carcass. Later, creatures like the bone-eating worm arrive to slowly break down the bones,” said the expert, marine biologist Andrew David Thaler. “This entire process can take 30 years or more, so the afterlife of a whale is as ecologically significant as its natural life.”
If only our gas was good for something besides making an elevator ride awkward.
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