Oscillons in granular media result from vertically vibrating a plate with a layer of uniform particles placed freely on top.
This meta-stable state will remain for a long time (many hundreds of thousands of oscillations) in the absence of further perturbation.
Stable interacting localized waves with subharmonic response were discovered and named oscillons at The University of Texas at Austin.
[citation needed] The cause of this phenomenon is currently under debate; the most likely connection is with the mathematical theory of chaos and may give insights into the way patterns in sand form.
Oscillons have also been experimentally observed in thin parametrically vibrated layers of viscous fluid and colloidal suspensions.