Fascinating photo. Interesting that they are calling it a shockwave. I would’ve guessed it was some kind of thermal effect.
bttt
I wouldn’t think it would be moving fast enough to cause a shockwave either, but look at what the eruption did to the clouds! It pushed them away from the island in a perfect circle like a ripple in a pond. Amazing.
}:-)4
I would too, but as I think about it, if the wave moving outward consists of an area of higher pressure, it will also be at a higher temperature. The volume hasn’t changed, so if the pressure goes up, the temperature will too. Boyle’s Law, I believe.
A little bit of both. Water mixed in with magma under extreme pressure, upon eruption flashes into steam and expands explosively. As the ball of steam expands, it's temperature falls, until it finally reaches a point where the steam condenses into fog.
Yeah me too. Even explosive ejecta that high up aren’t likely to travelling supersonic -— not even transsonic