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To: doorgunner69
This explains it pretty well.

Q & A: How could a meteor *explode*?

120 posted on 02/16/2013 12:32:00 PM PST by MD Expat in PA
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To: MD Expat in PA
If you have a solid piece of rock with a cavern of boiling water inside, it’s only a matter of time before the pressure builds up enough to cause a powerful explosion.

Yeah, but, that heating takes time. It would have to be damn near instantaneous. Time that is hard to visualize with something coming in that fast. The outer layers would ablate and protect the interior from much heating, how space capsules survive reentry of course.

The energy is certainly there, as evidenced from Karakatoa doing it's thing when water got into the magma chamber. But that huge chunk of rock did not sit and cook.

Without know the true velocity and angle it came in at, how long it took to transit the atmosphere is unknown, but could not have been more than a few seconds and probably a lot less.

121 posted on 02/16/2013 12:57:29 PM PST by doorgunner69
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