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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbam. Here just a heads up. This one gets

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Speaker 1: a little bit gross because we are talking about how

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Speaker 1: as some unlucky seaside towns have come to realize, disposing

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Speaker 1: of a deceased beached whale is more complex than simply

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Speaker 1: shoving it back in the ocean like some giant goldfish

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Speaker 1: flushed down an equally massive drain. The first to consider

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Speaker 1: is if the gigantic beast is going to explode. While

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Speaker 1: the idea might smell fishy a pun intended. Sorry, it's

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Speaker 1: totally true. Beached whales can and do explode, although not

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Speaker 1: very many of them will explode without a little help.

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Speaker 1: So let's take a moment to pinch our noses and

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Speaker 1: discuss those conditions. What on Earth, or at least what

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Speaker 1: in a whale could cause a mammalion corpse to explode.

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Speaker 1: The short answer is a bad case of gas. After

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Speaker 1: a whale dies, or after anything dies for that matter,

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Speaker 1: gases and most specifically methane build up in the stomach

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Speaker 1: and other organs. That's because bacterias are eating the dead

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Speaker 1: body from the inside and they excrete gases like methane.

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Speaker 1: This is, to be fair, an important part of the

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Speaker 1: natural decomposition process. Now, what usually happens next is that

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Speaker 1: the body's skin begins to disintegrate, at which point the

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Speaker 1: whale deflates slowly as the gas seeps out, but occasionally,

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Speaker 1: very occasionally, the skin of the whale, which is quite tough,

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Speaker 1: keeps stretching to accommodate the gas until it reaches a

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Speaker 1: breaking point, at which point cobluey, which brings us to

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Speaker 1: a word of warning. This process is unpredictable at best

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Speaker 1: and hazardous at worst. It's best to stay away from

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Speaker 1: dead whales, and not just because of the smell. If

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Speaker 1: you should poke or prod a methane filled whale, you're

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Speaker 1: giving it ample reason to explode before it has a

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Speaker 1: chance to deflate naturally, even if you're not messing with it.

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Speaker 1: Remember that it could burst open at any time. Should

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Speaker 1: you be too close to it. When it releases, you

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Speaker 1: might find yourself chest deep in liquefied innerds. It might

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Speaker 1: even require a rescue, So do yourself a favor and

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Speaker 1: pay your respects from a distance. By the way, if

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Speaker 1: this is making you a little nervous about your own

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Speaker 1: potentially explosive afterlife. You have good reason. As I said earlier,

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Speaker 1: other animals, including humans, also produce gases after death. But

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Speaker 1: our only explosion risk comes from a casket too tightly

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Speaker 1: sealed that wouldn't allow for any circulation. Too much gas

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Speaker 1: build up, and you have an exploding casket on your

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Speaker 1: hands and possibly your hair and clothes and shoes. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode is based on the article what makes beached whales

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Speaker 1: Explode on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Kate Kershner.

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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with

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Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four

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Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,