eli5: when a submarine exceeds its crush depth, and it’s crew is killed, what actually happens to them? Do they die instantly or are they squished flat? What happens ?
In: 293
Water enters the submarine and they drown.
The water pressure will compress their lungs and cause oxygen and nitrogen concentration in blood to increase. Nitrogen will be at too high concentration, which would be problematic if they didn’t die of lack of oxygen first since it’s going to be consumed and not replaced.
It will not crush their body. Solids and liquids are not crushed by high pressure. They can change state (liquid to solid sometime or one crystal type to another like graphite to diamond) sometime, but the pressure in the ocean isn’t high enough for that. All parts of the human body that aren’t gas (so everything besides the lungs and potential small amount of gas in your dogestive system) will be unaffected.
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