A mushroom cloud is a distinctive fiery mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed
water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by powerful non-nuclear weapons like the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance
Air Blast
bomb. Volcano eruptions and impact events can produce natural mushroom clouds.
Mushroom clouds are formed by many sorts of large explosions under
earth gravity, near the ground. Mushroom clouds form as a result of the sudden formation of a large mass of hot, low-density gases near the ground creating a Rayleigh-
Taylor instability. The mass of gas rises rapidly, drawing up a column of additional smoke and debris in the center to form its "stem". The mass of gas eventually reaches an altitude where it is no longer of lower density than the surrounding
air and disperses, forming the "head".
Nuclear mushroom clouds are often also accompanied by
short-lived vapor rings around the stem, called "Wilson clouds". These are created by the blast wave causing a sudden drop in the surrounding
air temperatures, causing
water vapor in the
air to condense around the explosion cloud's "stem".
Mushroom clouds cannot form after an explosion high in the air, under
water, or in space. In space the explosion would be somewhat spherical.
