Ancient Exploding Cannonballs

Planetes writes "There is a story on MSNBC about some surprise archaeology. Apparently, cannonballs from shipwrecks are "exploding" (more like heating up and cracking open) when they are exposed to air. At least one reacted so violently it reached several hundred degrees. Talk about a booby trap. I'd never have seen this one coming." Heat from oxidation (that's "rusting", if you haven't taken chemistry) has started many fires in cargo ships carrying iron.

Comments

Cross your legs

[hij]

The combination of oxygen and sea salt caused rapid oxidation resulting in the balls? ?exploding? open and crumbling into bits.

This is why I don't like to pull them out into the open air.