I understand that breathable air behaves differently underwater due to higher ambient pressure, and that for some reason it causes bubbles in your blood vessels if you ascend too quickly. But I couldn’t understand why that is.
Additionally, given the same supply of air tank, why is it the case that if you are living in a underwater habitat, then you can dive for longer hours as opposed to someone who came down from the surface?
In: Biology
Decompression occurs because more nitrogen dissolves in your blood at high pressures. When you start coming up, the nitrogen comes out of your blood as bubbles. If you do it slowly, the nitrogen can come out through your lungs like normal. If you come up too fast, the bubbles don’t have time to reach the lungs before they start collecting in your joints. This puts pressure on your joints and causes pain, known as “the bends” or decompression sickness.
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