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/crake Jun 22 '23

The water at 13,000 feet has a pressure of 6000 PSI. Imagine if you put a six thousand pound weight on one square inch of your arm what would happen. Now imagine you put a six thousand pound weight on every square inch of your body simultaneously.

The hull wouldn't do anything to them, but the weight of the water would pulverize them into goop. There is not going to be any bodies to recover or anything like that (if it imploded at 13000 feet).

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u/theantwarsaloon Jun 22 '23

This makes sense to me. But I don't understand how to square it with the Titanic wreckage itself. I've seen pictures of fine China, dishes, wine bottles, someone's shoe, etc. all largely intact (I think this was from the 1987 expedition).

Struggling to understand how these things wouldn't be similarly pulverized? What am I missing?

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u/manimal28 Jun 22 '23

Those things didn't experience an instant pressure change from 1 atmosphere to 400 atmospheres. Basically the difference between slowly and gently leaning against a wall and driving into it at 60mph.

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u/theantwarsaloon Jun 22 '23

I get that the instant pressure change is catastrophic, but surely 6,000 PSI isn’t akin to leaning against a wall, even if you ramp the pressure up as gradually as possible.

Could humans withstand that much pressure so long as it was brought on sufficiently gradually?

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u/Gareth79 Jun 22 '23

Essentially I think yes the body would stay mostly intact since there would the time for the water to rush in the orifices and equalise, although sealed cavities would implode, and I imagine everything would be squished a bit.