# Deep water vs the human body. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922 "2010-06-12T15:34:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/41 "2010-06-14T17:24:51Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > Still, I wouldn’t want to be too close when the lid comes off… One time I had an experienced hydraulics technician tell me he was going to loosen a fitting when the (stagnant) system was still under a thousand psi or so. I started panicking and having visions of high-pressure jets of hydraulic oil spraying everywhere, and was about to tell him to hold on, when he went ahead and loosened it anyway… …and only a little bit of oil dribbled out of the fitting. That was it. That was when I remembered that with no gas in the system, there would be next to no expansion driving the oil outward. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/42 "2010-06-14T17:32:48Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > …and only a little bit of oil dribbled out of the fitting. That was it. That was when I remembered that with no gas in the system, there would be next to no expansion driving the oil outward. :smack: True enough. But consider that with any such system, you cannot be SURE that signifcant amounts of gas have NOT managed to enter the system. Particularly one that doesnt appear to be working properly. Sure, they aren’t SUPPOSED to be there. Doesnt mean they arent. For safeties sake you should at least open it assuming liquids and or parts could possibly escape at high speeds. ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/43 "2010-06-15T01:58:55Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > [Not just fish.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_accident) (no pictures, but not for the squeamish) Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/44 "2010-06-16T06:51:28Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Yep! Pretty cool concept. Not yet ready for the masses yet. > Thanks Thinking about this, and the famous \*Abyss \*scene, and waterboarding - I wonder if it will _ever_ be ready for the masses. I remember Scylla’s post on his crazy caper, and how he noticed that once fluid goes past a certain point up the trachea, his body and brain went into full blown, automatic I-am-dying panic mode. If that’s half as intense as Scylla made it out to be (which I have no trouble believing, having near-drowned once myself), and if it is indeed a completely uncontrollable, deeply ingrained instinct ; then I wonder how even a trained human would deal with what essentially boils down to sustained drowning. Except, you know, not - but the brain might not realize that part 😛 ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/45 "2010-06-16T10:44:16Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Thinking about this, and the famous \*Abyss \*scene, and waterboarding - I wonder if it will _ever_ be ready for the masses. > I remember Scylla’s post on his crazy caper, and how he noticed that once fluid goes past a certain point up the trachea, his body and brain went into full blown, automatic I-am-dying panic mode. If that’s half as intense as Scylla made it out to be (which I have no trouble believing, having near-drowned once myself), and if it is indeed a completely uncontrollable, deeply ingrained instinct ; then I wonder how even a trained human would deal with what essentially boils down to sustained drowning. > Except, you know, not - but the brain might not realize that part 😛 If you pay them enough, I am sure they will find a way. I know it’s not exactly the same, but I had that sort of reaction the first time I used a neti pot (pouring water into your nose), and now I can do it half-asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/46 "2010-06-16T10:47:02Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > If you sent a water baloon to that depth it would likely retain its size and shape. No it wouldn’t, as the pressure got higher the size would shrink. Not by as much as with a gas, but it would. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/47 "2010-06-16T12:01:51Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > … as the pressure got higher the size would shrink. My back-of-the-envelope calcs suggest it would lose a bit less than 1 percent of its volume at a depth of 5000’. ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/48 "2010-06-17T03:35:56Z")
Styrofoam egg cartons come back looking pretty interesting too. My favorite was one of those heads that you use to mount wigs on. I might be able to track down a picture of it. > [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Styrofoam cups retain their shape to a surprising degree. An average styrofoam cup, stuck in a sock and attached to a standard oceanographic CTD/Niskin bottle array and sent on a deep cast will look like a tiny shotglass replica of it’s original self. It will be less foamy, because the gas has been forced out of it, and it will often be somewhat rippled, as the gas-forcing-out process obviously contorts the styrofoam somewhat. I used to have a beer wrap cooler thing that was the size of a shot glass - That was a very deep cast. > > I found some examples: > [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/\_L3sNLmoKUl4/SoCAeT\_N9VI/AAAAAAAADKw/09KtqSLM7p8/s320/styrocups.JPG](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_L3sNLmoKUl4/SoCAeT_N9VI/AAAAAAAADKw/09KtqSLM7p8/s320/styrocups.JPG) > > [http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4279612391\_82e52053ab.jpg](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4279612391_82e52053ab.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/49 "2010-10-01T17:06:45Z")
Zombie thread revived because I just found something relevant. Apparently high enough pressure is inherently fatal to the processes of life: [Pascalization - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascalization) ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/50 "2010-10-01T17:51:52Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > > [@mangeorge](#): > > > > Inspired by the BP debate. > > What exactly would happen to a human body at the depth of the BP oil spill, given that you could even get it down that deep ? > > It is very hard to know exactly what would happen to a human body at 5000ft, but besides being dead, not much physically. The pressure itself is balanced and so the body would stay approximately body shaped. The problems would be two-fold, relatively small differences in pressure would have significant effects on cell function and of course even if you had air compressed to that pressure it would be like breathing water. Gas exchange would be so messed up you wouldn’t be able to take or use a breath. But the corpse wouldn’t be crushed or anything. Fish for instance do just fine at 5000 ft. They don’t do so fine at the surface-the pressure change usually tears them apart-but if they are brought to the surface slowly enough they can survive. Like **rbroome** says. Dead whales and other animals have been sunk in deep ocean for research purposes. They retained their shape. I don’t see why human or other animal bodies would be any different. > **[Whale fall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall)** > > A whale fall occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor, typically at a depth greater than 1,000 m (3,300 ft), putting them in the bathyal or abyssal zones. On the sea floor, these carcasses can create complex localized ecosystems that supply sustenance to deep-sea organisms for decades. In some circumstances, particularly in cases with lower water temperatures, they can be found at much shallower depths, with at least one natural instance recorded at 150 m (500 ft) Dee... ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/51 "2010-10-01T17:56:16Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > > [@rbroome](#): > > > > It is very hard to know exactly what would happen to a human body at 5000ft, but besides being dead, not much physically. The pressure itself is balanced and so the body would stay approximately body shaped. The problems would be two-fold, relatively small differences in pressure would have significant effects on cell function and of course even if you had air compressed to that pressure it would be like breathing water. Gas exchange would be so messed up you wouldn’t be able to take or use a breath. But the corpse wouldn’t be crushed or anything. Fish for instance do just fine at 5000 ft. They don’t do so fine at the surface-the pressure change usually tears them apart-but if they are brought to the surface slowly enough they can survive. > > Like **rbroome** says. > > Dead whales and other animals have been sunk in deep ocean for research purposes. They retained their shape. I don’t see why human or other animal bodies would be any different. > > [Whale fall - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall) They took a picture of the carcass-lowering and it looked a bit like [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Failwhale.png). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/52 "2010-10-01T18:53:30Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > > [@NinetyWt](#): > > > > [stupid question] > > Is it true that when you bring up fish from those depths that their eyes pop out? > > [/sq] > > In my own experience deep-sea fishing, I can tell you that some organ (swim bladder?) inverts itself and protrudes right out of their mouths like a giant inflated tongue. Their eyes looked kind of bulgy, but I don’t know if it could have been a bug-eyed fish in its natural state. So that’s not a stupid question at all. I’ve seen that happen when pulling up lake perch, from depths of not more than 100 feet or so. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/53 "2010-10-01T19:02:55Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > > [@NinetyWt](#): > > > > [stupid question] > > Is it true that when you bring up fish from those depths that their eyes pop out? > > [/sq] > > [Not just fish.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byford_Dolphin#Diving_bell_accident) (no pictures, but not for the squeamish) Holy smokes that was a disturbingly violent event. The deep sea can kill you even long after you’ve removed yourself from its depths. ---
**Author:** ![DeeB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@DeeB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeeB)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/54 "2013-08-15T23:55:31Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > My back-of-the-envelope calcs suggest it would lose a bit less than 1 percent of its volume at a depth of 5000’. How do you calculate it? ---
**Author:** ![DeeB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@DeeB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeeB)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/55 "2013-08-16T00:04:49Z")
Hoping that there are still competent people looking at this thread, I would like to ask the initial question in a different way. Let’s hypothesise a human who had the ability to breathe water as well as air, this being the only significant difference between them and other people. To what depth could they swim until their body became unable to function. Would pressure and its effect on protein and the cell membranes/proteins and enzyme function be the only problem? I found this article and wouldn’t mind experts opinions on it if there’s any available. > **[Life (and death) at extraordinary deep sea pressures | Deep Sea News](https://deepseanews.com/2012/03/cool-as-a-sea-cucumber-life-and-death-at-extraordinary-deep-sea-pressures/)** > > Marine Biologist and Deep Sea News blogger Dr. Alistair Dove describes the staggering pressures experienced during James Cameron's Deep Challenger mission What I am thinking is that the ‘slicing effect’ he describes would only occur if the pressure was applied on one part of the body. But at depth one would be subjected to the same pressure everywhere. Any other comments? ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/56 "2013-08-16T04:29:34Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > [Whale fall - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_fall) Wasn’t that a Bond movie? Maybe I can ask here: I’ve heard that in the past, divers got air pumped down from boats on the surface, and had tubes attaching them. Sometimes, if the air system failed and pressure was lost, the divers would be crushed by the water pressure and parts of them would be forced up the tubes. Is this true? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/57 "2013-08-16T13:08:58Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Wasn’t that a Bond movie? > > Maybe I can ask here: I’ve heard that in the past, divers got air pumped down from boats on the surface, and had tubes attaching them. Sometimes, if the air system failed and pressure was lost, the divers would be crushed by the water pressure and parts of them would be forced up the tubes. Is this true? Absolutely true. The problem was that on old time dive suits, the helmet was rigid, so it retained its shape while the rest of the dive suit squeezed around the body, so it would eventually force the soft tissues of the body into the helmet. Here’s the [Mythbusters clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEY3fN4N3D8) where they recreated it with a pig carcass. SFW, but somewhat gory. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/58 "2013-08-16T13:25:38Z")
> [@deebenevent@yahoo.co.nz](#): > > How do you calculate it? It was some time ago, but I think I found some approximate formula for volume as a function of pressure. Here’s a [Wiki cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Properties_of_water#Compressibility): > [@](#): > > The low compressibility of water means that even in the deep oceans at 4 km depth, where pressures are 40 MPa, there is only a 1.8% decrease in volume. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/59 "2013-08-16T16:04:25Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Absolutely true. The problem was that on old time dive suits, the helmet was rigid, so it retained its shape while the rest of the dive suit squeezed around the body, so it would eventually force the soft tissues of the body into the helmet. Here’s the [Mythbusters clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEY3fN4N3D8) where they recreated it with a pig carcass. SFW, but somewhat gory. Damn, that’s not survivable. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922/60 "2013-08-19T17:57:49Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Absolutely true. The problem was that on old time dive suits, the helmet was rigid, so it retained its shape while the rest of the dive suit squeezed around the body, so it would eventually force the soft tissues of the body into the helmet. Here’s the [Mythbusters clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEY3fN4N3D8) where they recreated it with a pig carcass. SFW, but somewhat gory. Ahem… Post #19. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deep-water-vs-the-human-body/542922.md?page=2)