whatilearned
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_tree
TIL about the unusual phenomenon of “exploding trees.” The trees explode when water in the tree’s sap freezes. As the liquid hardens, it expands, eventually bursting the trees open emitting a gunshot-like pop. The exploding trees often bring down others with them, resulting in major damage.
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Wasn’t this a plot point in one of the Gary Paulsen books?
This happened in a place we call “the kingdom”, a woodsy area the people in my childhood town hung out at. We were having a campfire in the snow, and we swear we heard a .22 go off behind us. We walked for a few minutes and found a tree resting diagonally on top of two other trees, and dirt and roots sticking up out of the ground with a huge hole. One of our more intelligent friends eventually figured out what happened through google searching.
The next year, the two trees it was leaning on fell over as well.
Lost my favorite maple tree that way in 18.
One of the enjoyable aspects of winter camping late nights when it is cold enough for the whiskey to freeze. We’ve experienced this phenomenon regularly in the BWCA & Superior National Forest during our winter camping excursions.
Fire does it too, I’ve seen trees explode while working on a fire train on the RR. Absolutely wild and scary as.
I had a surgeon here in vermont tell me stories about chainsaw accidents which as you might guess are common here. The worst accidents he has seen are when they are cutting down trees in really cold temps and the trees explode while cutting.
Mother Nature sick of our bs and starting to fight back. Noice