[lambdatronics]

I heard that the shock wave was spalling off the front few cm of the liquid metal wall as a spray of jets/droplets -- the shock reflects from the vacuum interface & where the wave interfered destructively with itself, the pressure dropped to zero, and cavitation occurred. This happens in a random & uneven fashion.

[pfdietz]

That sounds very plausible. Do you have a reference I could cite?

[lambdatronics]

Here it is: https://generalfusion.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Suponit...

Edit: Here's a second one that's similar (but behind a paywall). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045793013...

The preprint is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.6010v2

Edit 2: Here's a better one with video frames from the experiment showing the jets. https://generalfusion.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Richard...

[pfdietz]

Cool, thanks!