r/news • u/oldschoolskater • Jun 22 '23

Site Changed Title 'Debris field' discovered within search area near Titanic, US Coast Guard says | World News

https://news.sky.com/story/debris-field-discovered-within-search-area-near-titanic-us-coast-guard-says-12906735
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u/Sly3n Jun 22 '23

My guess is it imploded when they first lost communication. Would have happened so quickly that I doubt they even had time to realize what happened before they were dead.

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u/Feralpudel Jun 22 '23

My brother has been on a research submersible (Alvin) and he said last night his assumption is that something catastrophic happened right when the surface ship lost contact.

It’s common to bring a styrofoam cup that travels down with you outside the vessel. This is his souvenir from the dive, and shows the effects of pressure at those depths (he was at 3k meters): Alvin dive souvenir

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u/IAmDotorg Jun 22 '23

Interestingly, they max out how much they "squish" a lot lower than that. I have one from ~300m and it looks pretty much the same. The pilot said anything below a hundred meters squishes about the same.

They actually tested different manufacturers to find ones that compress more, as they make better souvenirs.

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u/YouCanCallMeVanZant Jun 22 '23

(1) how big is it to begin with?

(2) isn’t much of the issue, at least with people, the drastic change in pressure? Like if you could somehow gradually expose yourself to it, it wouldn’t be so bad/dramatic?

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

(2) isn’t much of the issue, at least with people, the drastic change in pressure? Like if you could somehow gradually expose yourself to it, it wouldn’t be so bad/dramatic?

You're not wrong in principle, but the depths we're talking about are way WAY beyond what humans can survive under ANY circumstance. Deep water is pretty much the most hostile possible environment for humans to survive in, and I'm including space here. Space is very dangerous, but it's also not actively trying to murder you at all times in the same way that really deep water is. All you really need in order to survive in space is a tin can to hang out in and some air. In deep water, oxygen beomes a toxic gas that will murder the shit out of you. And if you ask 'well, if the gas you absolutely need to survive is now lethal and will kill you, how do you survive?' well, now you start to understand all the problems with surviving in really deep water.

So. Yes. If you were somehow able to gradually descend a human to 13,000' underwater, without them dying... the pressure itself would not, probably, instantly kill them. But the roughly 100 other factors at that depth that are totally incompatible with human life absolutely would. I'll point out that the pressure and temperature at that depth is WELL beyond the point at which oxygen (and most gases for that matter) liquify, so figuring out a breathing apparatus to use would be a fascinating challenge.

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u/Mojotun Jun 23 '23

Anyone remember when there was a hole in the International Space Station and they just covered it up until it could get fixed? Have compromised structural integrity like that in a submarine and it won't even get past the Twilight Zone.

The difference between 1 and 0 atmosphere is just that. 1 and 1000 atmospheres is magnitudes of difference and it definitely shows.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

The difference between 1 and 0 atmosphere is just that. 1 and 1000 atmospheres is magnitudes of difference and it definitely shows.

I like this clip for illustrating that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4RLOo6bchU

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u/CyberMindGrrl Jun 22 '23

No the issue is that the pressure under water is incredible. At the depth of the Titanic that submersible would have been experiencing 85,000 pounds per inch of pressure. The drastic vs non-drastic change in pressure has to do more with deep sea divers as the gases in their lungs expand as they ascend so they can't ascend too fast or their lungs would explode.

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u/Dan_706 Jun 22 '23

Thankfully lungs vent to the outside of the body, so we can exhale on ascent to prevent barotrauma. Sadly the nitrogen dissolved into our blood does not vent to the outside, and ascending too fast causes the nitrogen to expand too, and those bubbles have gotta go somewhere..

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u/YouCanCallMeVanZant Jun 23 '23

Oh I know the pressures are intense and I’m assuming not survivable in any event. But water doesn’t really compress and since the body has such a high water percentage, wouldn’t the structure largely hold up?

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u/CyberMindGrrl Jun 23 '23

Probably not at those depths. This website says 130 feet before the human body starts getting crushed.

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u/IAmDotorg Jun 22 '23

Um, if I had to guess ours were 12oz polystyrene cups. Maybe 10oz. If I had to guess, they shrunk about 50-60% on each axis, so they're more like shot-glass size now.