The use of the word āexplodeā is misleading. Itās definitely misinformation.
Hereās an arborist talking about it, but basically:
Trees move sap and other liquids up and down their trunk from the soil underneath regularly. For trees like maples, this is where maple syrups comes from, except you have to collect a lot of sap and reduce it down to syrup.
The arborist claims that these liquids present in the tree when the temperature swings faster than the tree can respond expand due to freezing, which buckles tree trunks causing the outer bark to crack open and separate. The cracks can be from the ground up, or they can look like gashed in the side of the tree. Thereās moisture in the soil too, which can shift tree roots and cause similar cracking.
People say āexplodeā because thereās usually a popping sound when this happens.
In other contexts, people call this frost upheave. Engineers know about this phenomenon, and try to bury equipment like pipes and cable and conduit below the frost line so frost upheave doesnāt crack and break that stuff. With trees, this frost upheave just takes place inside trees themselves.
protist@mander.xyz āØ18ā© āØhoursā© ago
Iām going to guess it has to do with how quickly the temperature change occurs, or other environmental factors. It seems to be a somewhat rare occurrence, even in places where it gets very cold
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world āØ17ā© āØhoursā© ago
In Alberta a chinook can make the temp go from -20 to 20 in a matter of hours, the same backwards.
buffing_lecturer@leminal.space āØ16ā© āØhoursā© ago
Huh TIL
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world āØ16ā© āØhoursā© ago
They also create clippers on their way to states, hence the term Alberta Clipper.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone āØ16ā© āØhoursā© ago
Does wind chill make water freeze faster?
Deceptichum@quokk.au āØ15ā© āØhoursā© ago
The helicopter?
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world āØ15ā© āØhoursā© ago
With enough flamethrowers, or an atom bomb, Iām sure the same could be attained.
somethingsnappy@lemmy.world āØ11ā© āØhoursā© ago
The ones that would explode did a loooong time ago.