The agonizing search for the Titan has ended in the worst of ways. The five occupants of the tourist submarine of Ocean Gate died before completing the purpose of seeing the wreck of the titanic. On Sunday, a hour and 45 minutes after the immersionthe ship stopped emitting signals on Sunday and on Monday began an operation of unprecedented international bailout. The most promising theory said that they could be alive. Although if that was the case, they were fighting against the oxygen clock: the small submersible had breathable air for 96 hours and the critical limit was exceeded this Thursday at 1:08 p.m. (peninsular time). Even so, the occupants did not die from suffocation. Nor after four days adrift. The Coast Guard of USA announced today at 5:48 p.m. that it had found “a debris field” at 3,300 meters, in the area near the wreck of the legendary ocean liner. Hours later, the news was confirmed: the submarine suffered a “catastrophic implosion”. what does it mean implode? whatWhat happened to the Titan in a matter of milliseconds?
Beyond the lack of oxygen, the submersible faced three possible obstacles that made its rescue almost impossible. Finally, one of them culminated in the fatal outcome: the water pressure. The Titanic, 269 meters long, rests at 3,800 meters deepwhich implies a immersion of approximately eight hours in a special vehicle to get to him. More than special, unbreakable.
In the abyssal plainthe pressure is about 40 megapascals (MPa), 395 times more intense than that on the earth’s surface. To put this situation into perspective, that is equivalent to 4,000 tons per square meter or as if the tip of your finger (one square centimeter) supported 420 kilos. Another example: the world record of unlimited freediving is 214 meters deep, which is equivalent to about 2 MPa, a figure that multiplies by 20 the normal atmospheric pressure (101,325 pascals).
Weight tons per square meter
Implosion is the opposite of explosion. That is, the collapse occurs inward. It occurs in any object and container when there is an excess of low pressure inside, either by the action of external or internal forces. In this case, it happened when the external pressure of the deep ocean exceeded the atmosphere inside the submarine. Furthermore, at higher pressure, less air volumeTherefore, a failure in the submarine’s hermetism, such as a crack in the hull, is catastrophic and causes a withering destruction.
The Coast Guard has indicated that it is still soon to know when the ship imploded. But you can do different calculations to establish the magnitude of the event. Taking into account that communications were lost one hour and 45 minutes after the dive, that the underwater journey lasts eight hours and the distance of almost four kilometers to cover, the submersible suffered the catastrophic failure at a depth of between 820 and 950 meters deep, which is subjected to between 7.6 and 9 MPa.
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The following video shows the effects of an implosion in a vacuum tank at 1 atmosphere (ATM), which is equivalent to the standard pressure of 101.325 pascals. The same impact, but multiplied by 75 times in the best of cases and 89 in the worst, suffered the occupants of the Titan.
Train Tank vacuum implosion at 1 atmospheric pressure. The depth at #Titan is around 375 atmospheres. All speculation…..but a picture is worth a thousand words. pic.twitter.com/sFgcSjhr5A
—Adam Stuart (@amstuart1994) June 22, 2023
On the contrary, if the implosion happened at 3,300 meters, where the coastguards found the remains of the submersible, the explosion was 30 MPa, 296 times stronger than in the images that were previously appreciated. The Titan, which measured 6.7 meters in length, was made of carbon fiber and titanium to withstand the pressure. However, with so many megapascals of pressure, little can be done.