A video showing the guts of a dead sperm whale exploding in the Faeroe Islands has gone viral.
In the video, the whale is shown blowing like a sideways volcano, nearly injuring a scientist, who was covered in protective clothing from head to foot, and a fisherman standing nearby.
According to the Huffington Post, scientist Bjarni Mikkelsen was cutting open the whale in hopes of using its skeleton in a Danish museum and the cutting tool hit a gas pocket in the whale's blubber. Mikkelsen, a Faeroese whale expert, is seen quickly dodging backward as gases, liquids and internal organs pour from the hole.
Biologist Adam Ruben of the Science Channel, told the Huffington Post that the whale's gas build up comes from the decomposition of fishes in the animal's stomach. The whale was reportedly been dead for several days, getting trapped in a narrow channel. Death was due to natural causes.
"The animal was more than two days old when we took it so we knew there would be some pressure on the inside, but nothing like what happened," Mikkelsen told Mail Online. "We couldn't imagine it would happen like that so it was a little bit more of a surprise. It wasn't a shock. We had expected something. In the situation I was more worried about something worse happening or anyone getting hurt."
Mikkelsen described the moment as very loud and a topic of discussion after it had occurred. Nuclear chemist Alistair Linstell, also suggested that the gas was a "mixture of methane, hydrogen sulphide and ammonia."
The National Geographic, listed the sperm whale as a vulnerable species. It is on the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN and also measures bigger than a school bus.
The video was caught on camera by the Faroese Broadcasting Corp. Marine biologist Johan Johanse posted the video and entitled it "Sperm Whale explodes!".
According to the New York Daily News, the process of stripping the sperm whale's flesh from the skeleton has resumed.
