3D Particles Sand Burst?

Making a scene with something bursting out of sand but can’t find anything similar to what I want on Youtube. Anyone tried this sort of thing?

I need to implement a kind of falloff so there are a lot more particles around the base than further away (they start with a Torus Location and omni burst). Could really use some kind of Viscosity like Houdini does in fluid sims. Maybe a noise for Drag?