Nature's Sonic Boooom

2:45 AM  , , , , ,  

North-East, Singapore
September 2012
Cloudy

It was "Low Tide In The North-East" when Merlion Wayfarer kept hearing cracking sounds in the water.



Remember the scene in Street Fighter when Guile (Yeah, that spiky yellow-haired guy with bulging muscles!) bends his body and two blinding arcs of light emit from his hands? Sonic Boom!!!


In the natural world, there is a finger-sized shrimp with an oversized claw that does just that. The claw, resembling a boxing glove, is used to stun its prey. By snapping it shut, a sharp cracking sound is produced. When colonies of the shrimp snap their claws, the cacophony is so intense that submarines can take advantage of it to hide from sonar. (Roach, 2001)


In 2000, a team of European scientists revealed that the sound is caused by the bursting of a bubble that forms when a shrimp snaps its claw shut. Now, the team reports that the bubble emits not only sound but a flash of light—indicating the extreme temperature and pressure inside the bubbles before they burst. The stunning snap comes not from the clap of the claws coming together but from a bubble generated by the claws' rapid closing motion. (Roach, 2001)
   
Today Merlion Wayfarer finally saw one. She has heard these snapping sounds often near beaches and in Pulau Ubin's Chek Jawa. But these shrimps are kinda skittish, and it is hard to spot one before it scuttles into some burrow or digs into the sandbed.
   
So when there were puddles near the shore, it was time Merlion Wayfarer took out her lens and try to spot one. Ain't easy... There were lots of little creatures zipping about in the puddles. A wait of at least 15 minutes was required to allow them to settle down.
  
And then... underneath a stone no bigger than an egg, she found a bigger shrimp. And on closer look, it had a claw so huge that it looked like some debris floating nearby...
  

Merlion Wayfarer discovered that this shrimp also has a little friend. Who is it? Find out in "Low Tide In The North-East.
   
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