interestingasfuck

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interestingasfuck

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Metal melted out of a car (npr.brightspotcdn.com)

submitted 22 hours ago by kersploosh@sh.itjust.works to c/interestingasfuck@lemmy.world

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The shiny puddles look like some low-temp metal melted and oozed out of the car as it burned. I wonder what part(s) melted, and what type of metal it is?

The picture is from a NPR piece about the current Los Angeles wildfires: https://www.npr.org/sections/the-picture-show/2025/01/09/g-s1-41784/los-angeles-fire-photos

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[–] Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world 7 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Were the front wheels made from two metals of different melting points?

[–] Revonult@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Could be steel rims. Engine blocks are typically Aluminium which have about half the melting point of Steel at only around 600C depending on alloy, which is pretty low in the metals world.

Rims are also typically Aluminium but they are clearly not as melted so could be steel rims or the fire was not as concentrated there (core of the car burned out while the outside was bit cooler)

Edit: The molten material could be from even lower melting point Al alloys (High in Silicon or Magnesium). Cars also can use some high Magnesium alloys that can have even lower melting point.