Explosion crater
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An explosion crater is a type of
crater Crater may refer to: Landforms * Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet * Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surf ...
formed when material is ejected from the surface of the ground by an explosive event at or immediately above or below the surface. A crater is formed by an explosive event through the displacement and ejection of material from the ground. It is typically bowl-shaped. High-pressure gas and
shock wave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...
s cause three processes responsible for the creation of the crater: * Plastic deformation of the ground. * Projection of material (
ejecta Ejecta (from the Latin: "things thrown out", singular ejectum) are particles ejected from an area. In volcanology, in particular, the term refers to particles including pyroclastic materials (tephra) that came out of a volcanic explosion and magma ...
) from the ground by the explosion. *
Spallation Spallation is a process in which fragments of material (spall) are ejected from a body due to impact or stress. In the context of impact mechanics it describes ejection of material from a target during impact by a projectile. In planetary p ...
of the ground surface. Two processes partially fill the crater back in: * Fall-back of ejecta. * Erosion and landslides of the crater lip and wall.P. W. Cooper. ''Explosives Engineering''. Wiley-VCH. The relative importance of the five processes varies, depending on the height above or depth below the ground surface at which the explosion occurs and on the composition of the ground.


Examples

One of the largest explosion craters in Germany is in the borough of
Prüm Prüm () is a town in the Westeifel (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany. Formerly a district capital, today it is the administrative seat of the '' Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Prüm. Geography Prüm lies on the river Prüm (a tr ...
. It was caused by a huge explosion in 1949, in which an
ammunition depot An ammunition dump, ammunition supply point (ASP), ammunition handling area (AHA) or ammunition depot is a military storage facility for live ammunition and explosives. The storage of live ammunition and explosives is inherently hazardous. The ...
exploded due to unknown causes and large parts of the town were destroyed.


References


See also

*
Hydrothermal explosion Hydrothermal explosions occur when superheated water trapped below the surface of the earth rapidly converts from liquid to steam, violently disrupting the confining rock. Boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragments are ejected over an area of a ...
, caused by rapid heating of groundwater by volcanic sources *
Maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallo ...
, a crater caused by a volcanic explosion *
Pseudocrater A rootless cone, also formerly called a pseudocrater, is a volcanic landform which resembles a true volcanic crater, but differs in that it is not an actual vent from which lava has erupted. They are characterised by the absence of any magma c ...
, a volcanic crater formed by a steam explosion *
Subsidence crater __NOTOC__ A subsidence crater is a hole or depression left on the surface of an area which has had an underground (usually nuclear) explosion. Many such craters are commonly present at bomb testing areas; one notable example is the Nevada Test S ...
, a depression in the ground formed by collapse of a void below the surface *
Impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...
, a depression formed by excavation following a hypervelocity impact *
Volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During volcanic eruptions, molten magma and volcanic gases rise from an und ...
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