On 9 November 1970, the town of Florence in the US State of Oregon woke up to find the corpse of a sperm whale had washed ashore. When the state’s Highway Division saw it, they decided after consulting with the US Navy to detonate the whale’s body with the assumption that if detonated, the 16,000lb/ 7,300kg carcass would produce pieces small enough for scavengers to eat.

The detonation happened 3 days later on 12 November 1970 and it was recorded by the local television station KATU and while there weren’t any problems with the initial explosion which had chunks flying as far as 800 feet, there were no scavengers flocking to the sight as they had been most likely frightened by the explosion. The whale blubber chunks from the explosion ended up falling onto nearby buildings, car parks and even a larger piece crushed the car of the explosives expert. Had the whale not been detonated, it is likely that it would’ve exploded on the beach from the build up of gasses, much like one that exploded in Taiwan back in 2004 amid transportation for a post-mortem examination.

The news of the exploding whale became one of the first viral news broadcasts.