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It’s like what happens when a pistol shrimp snaps it’s claw.
The jet of water pushed out by the shrimp’s claw snap moves so fast (it has clocked in at 62 miles per hour!) through the surrounding water that an area of low pressure is created directly behind the jet stream, forming a gas bubble (Fig. 2). However, within microseconds, the pressure from the surrounding seawater builds so high that the bubble collapses in on itself asymmetrically, forming a cavitation bubble. The intense bubble implosion creates a loud pop! sound that sends a sonic shockwave through the water, which can stun or kill unlucky invertebrates nearby.
Simultaneous to the loud pop!, the bubble collapse also generates an instantaneous flash of light at wavelengths that indicate extremely hot temperatures within the bubbles (up to 5000 Kelvin, or 8540°F).
Pistol shrimp colonies generate so much noise – loud snapping sounds all day and all night – that they actually interfere with the Navy’s ability to use sonar technology for submarine detection. In fact, pistol shrimp are credited with aiding the U.S. during World War II. United States submarines were purposefully kept amid colonies of pistol shrimp or affixed with speakers playing pistol shrimp snapping sounds, so that the soundwaves from the loud bubble snaps of the shrimp would acoustically camouflage underwater vessels from detection by sonar surveillance systems. And it worked
