This viral video of a clam digging into sand will either mesmerize or disgust you
May 13, 2017, 11:13 AM
Nature is weird, sometimes.
Take, for example, this video of a clam digging into the sand.
This video, posted by The Weather Channel, has been viewed more than 11 million times on Facebook alone since Wednesday.
According to The Huffington Post, the video was originally uploaded last month by Kate Taylor, a Oregon fly fishing guide. On Taylor’s Facebook page, it has been viewed more than 6 million times.
And people have a lot of opinions about it.
Most people can’t decide how the feel about it — or even what “it” is. Some say it’s a razor clam, while others argue it is a geoduck.
Correction: Pacific Razor Clam. I am an East Coast Elitist. https://t.co/LG7B7c4sYF
— Andrew Thaler (@DrAndrewThaler) May 10, 2017
According to The Washington Post, Annette Hosoi, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it is a razor clam.
And razor clams can dig about two feet into the sand, despite having no hands or claws. Hosoi found that clams can turn the solid sand into a quicksand-like substance in order to dig deep.
This is how it all works, according to The Washington Post.
“First a clam relaxes its muscles, which causes the shell to open. (In the same way that the mussels we eat pop open when cooked, except these razor clams aren’t relaxed all the way dead.) Braced in the sand, the clam thrusts its fleshy foot downward.
“Then it squeezes water into the bottom of its foot, causing the appendage to balloon. So anchored, the clam contracts. The pocket of sand around the clam ‘fluidizes,’ loosening up and reducing the drag on the clam, so the shell can slide down to the foot.”
How did this video make you feel? Tell us in the comments below.
