A Pistol Shrimp's Claw Snap Creates a Shockwave Briefly Hotter Than the Sun's Surface

The pistol shrimp (also called the snapping shrimp) is small — barely a couple of centimeters long — but its weapon is one of the most extreme in the animal kingdom.

The shrimp has one oversized claw that looks like a tiny pistol. When it snaps shut at 100 km/h, it ejects a high-speed jet of water that creates a cavitation bubble — a low-pressure void in the water. As the bubble collapses, it produces a shockwave that:

• Generates a sound up to 218 decibels — louder than a gunshot, capable of stunning or killing fish nearby
• Briefly reaches temperatures of about 4,700°C at the bubble core — hotter than most stars' surfaces
• Emits a brief flash of light — sonoluminescence
• Travels at over 100 m/s in water

Why It Matters

Pistol shrimp colonies are so loud they interfere with submarine sonar. During WWII, U.S. submarines deliberately sat in pistol shrimp colonies to mask their acoustic signatures from enemy listening devices.

Cooperative Living

Pistol shrimp often share burrows with goby fish in a remarkable mutualism. The nearly-blind shrimp does the digging; the goby acts as lookout. The shrimp keeps a feeler-antenna touching the goby — when the goby flicks its tail to indicate danger, both retreat into the burrow simultaneously. This kind of inter-species cooperation is rare and well-documented.