Ancient Canon Balls Found After a Century

Ancient cannon balls that have been retrieved from ancient shipwrecks are exploding on the desks of archaeologists according New Scientist.

Robert Child, of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff, told the magazine that has witness a few incidents of old rusted cannon balls start to heat up or explode after being exposed to oxygen.

"There was smoke coming off the bench," he told the magazine.

He said the explosions happened because the balls had developed a lattice- like porous structure over hundreds of years that reacted with oxygen to produce massive amounts of heat.