  We have studied the splashing dynamics of water drops impacting granular
layers. Depending on the drop kinetic energy, various shapes are observed for
the resulting craters. Experimental parameters that have been considered are :
the size of the millimetric droplets; the height of the free fall, ranging from
1.5 cm to 100 cm; and the diameter of the grains. As the drop is impacting the
granular layer, energy is dissipated and a splash of grain occurs. Meanwhile,
surface tension, inertia and viscosity compete, leading to strong deformations
of the drop which depend on the experimental conditions. Just after the drop
enters into contact with the granular bed, imbibition takes place and increases
the apparent viscosity of the fluid. The drop motion is stopped by this
phenomenon. Images and fast-video recordings of the impacts allowed to find
scaling laws for the crater morphology and size.
  This abstract is related to a fluid dynamics video for the APS DFD gallery of
fluid motion 2010.
