eli5: Why do drowned bodies sink and then float?
In: Biology
Not everyone’s the same, but most people are just about buoyant when they’re breathing, so when they stop, all those sinuses and air sacs fill with water. Now that they’re a little denser than their surroundings, the lighter (per unit volume) water pushes them down. But, the water wasn’t counting on all the bacteria that was eating that body and can now go ham since the defenses have turned off with the death of the brain. Those bacteria eventually convert enough of their food into gases as they digest and those gases combine into pockets that are less dense than the surrounding water, so the body gets pushed back up.
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