What Is Catastrophic Implosion, Likely Reason Behind Wrecking Of Titanic Submersible

Following the discovery of the Titan submersible's wreckage, it has been believed that the vessel was destroyed by a"catastrophic implosion", which would have occurred with tremendous force and speed, given the crushing water pressure on the ocean floor.

Reuter

Submersible likely collapsed in milliseconds

The remains of the Titanic rest on the seabed in the North Atlantic at a depth of some 3,800 meters (12,400 feet). At sea level, atmospheric pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi).

Water pressure at the depth where the ocean liner lies is equivalent to around 400 atmospheres, nearly 6,000 psi. As a comparison, the bite of a large great white shark exerts a force of nearly 4,000 psi, according to Scientific American.

In an implosion caused by a defect in the hull or for some other reason, the submersible would collapse in on itself in milliseconds, crushed by the immense water pressure. Death would be virtually instantaneous for the occupants of the pressurized chamber.

The Titan, built by OceanGate Inc. of Everett, Washington, was designed to sustain the extreme water pressure at the depth of the Titanic and had made previous dives to the wreck.

AFP

But safety concerns had been raised, most notably in a lawsuit involving OceanGate's former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, who was fired in 2018 after warning about the Titan's "experimental" carbon fiber hull.

Roderick Smith, an engineering professor at Imperial College, London, said the accident was likely due to a "failure of the pressure hull," but debris will need to be recovered to carry out a full investigation.

And even then, it may be difficult to pinpoint the cause. "The violence of the implosion means that it may be very difficult to determine the sequence of events," Smith said.

US Navy believes it heard implosion days ago

The US Navy detected the possible implosion of Titan on underwater sound monitoring devices shortly after it vanished in the Atlantic Ocean during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic.

Mentioning an unnamed senior US Navy official, Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday reported that the implosion was registered briefly after the submersible went missing on Sunday by a covert acoustic monitoring system created to detect submarines.

"The US Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost," the official told the publication.

All five passengers onboard presumed dead

On Thursday, the US Coast Guard said it had found the wreckage of the submersible near the remains of the Titanic, which sits 3,800 meters (12,400 feet) under the sea.

AFP

The announcement ended a four-day multinational search-and-rescue operation, with officials telling reporters that analysis showed debris found on the seafloor was consistent with the implosion of the sub's pressure chamber.

According to OceanGate Expeditions, which operated the submersible, the craft's five passengers are presumed dead.

(With inputs from AFP)

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