human bodies in deep sea environments

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DariusAmurdarja

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Dec 22, 2011
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I wonder how that works. You all know the RMS Titanic. It´s well known that Titanic pulled alot of people down to the ocean floor. The main reason for that was because of her massive size and the enormous suction she created at her final plunge.

The thing is, shouldn´t human bodies "refloat once the Titanic reached the bottom? It appears that the ones she got in her grip were not released...

The ocean floor around the wreck is covered with shoes that are the only remains left from the bodies. So it seems they were ripped down and then settled there. What is the mechanism behind that? Did that pressure down there press out any less dense elements from their bodies?
 
Rather morbid subject but I wouldn't imagine that the bodies would remain at the surface for very long once they fill with water....There are quite a few drownings in the rivers and creeks in this area and it seems that rescue divers have to down to recover the bodies pretty often.
 
I saw some show on unsolved mysteries or something that says that in water, the ligaments in the ankles decay and detatch first, hence why the first remains of suicide victims that are found on the shore is the shoes, sometimes with the partially decayed foot still in it.
I dont know much about the sea life where the Titanic sunk, but I saw a documentary on her and there were a lot of Shrimp and Crabs and Starfish in the area, all of which would be a pretty effective cleanup crew. Not to mention that humans inside her wouldnt resurface. Maybe float to the top of the compartment they were in, but if they were trapped inside, they wouldnt find their way out by floating.

Morbid topic yes, but some people make their living off studying this kind of thing, so it's not a strange thing to wonder.
 
The immense pressure at deep depths will expel all gases from bodies once they reach crush depth. Once gases are removed, bodies become negatively buoyant and won't float to the surface.

Note: Crush depth is a misnomer since human bodies are essentially bags of fluid. Lungs holding air compact as bodies sink. There's a point where the gas compression passes a point where essential O2 amounts will become insufficient to maintain proper respiration and/or lungs literally implode when trying to retain air. Survivors breating in holds on the ship would have had enough pressure (atmospheres) exerted on them to prevent respiration. Deep divers use mixed gases under increased pressure to compensate for the extra atmospheres of pressure exerted upon human bodies.
 
Bottomfeeder said:
Morbid topic yes, but some people make their living off studying this kind of thing, so it's not a strange thing to wonder.
Click to expand...
Yeah I realize some people study this sort of thing.I even know a few who study forensics.I have one neighbor who used to be a rescue diver and if I can get a chance I might ask him what his his thoughts are as far as what the human body goes through in such a situation.
 
according to mythbusters, which is the only info I've ever seen on it, you do not get "sucked" down when the ship sinks. I think all people/bodies that went down with the ship did so because they were prevented from floating.
 
Mythbusters did not sink a 46.000 tons vessel. All survivors report of a massive suction. You can follow the path Titanic went under water. The sea floor is covered from things that were floating behind her. And i don´t talk about metal stuff, but also wood, deck chairs, life belts and even cork. All that stuff was pulled down from her and once it reached the crush depth sunk to the ground. The sea floor is covered from pairs of shoes and "impact" marks of human bodies behind her. There is a very strong current and that proves that all those bodies went down with her and did not sink down days later. There were not much bodies left on the surface. Just few hours after her sinking the bodies left on surface were wide spread from the area of her sinking.
 
i think oddball has it right, once those items reached the crushing depths gases were expelled so there wasn't any buoyancy left for the items to float.
 
I guess so too. I don´t want know how those people did look like...

On a side note, the olympic class liners were known to create a very strong suction when moving. The RMS Olympic (Titanis sister ship) sucked a war shem, the Hawk into her side. The Titanic sucked the Oceanic and New York while dring fast close by. It was only a few feet space between them left. When you imagine that she pulled big liners with her suction which were hundreds of feet away you can imagine what she did to human bodies.
 
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