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The Deep Sea

neal.fun

51–60 of 98 posts

Re: The Deep Sea

#51

The site mentions the Trieste reaching Challenger Deep and how a window cracked on the way down. I can't imagine wanting to reach it so badly that they'd risk the implosion. I guess death at that depth has the benefit of being instant.

I can totally imagine wanting to reach it that badly -- what else could you do, turn back that close to the bottom? That said, they didn't actually know that a window had broken until they were already there[0]: > After almost five hours inside their tiny 6ft 4in cabin, the duo touched down on the sea floor at 36,000ft. [...] They spent 20 minutes there identifying the source of the explosive sound – a cracked acryli…

> what else could you do, turn back that close to the bottom?

Yes?

Re: The Deep Sea

#52

I kept thinking "wow, that has to be the deepest diving air breathing animal here," and I kept being amazed at how deep some animals can dive.

Yah, mammals keep butting in all the way down to three k, which is much further than many animals I think of (incorrectly) as being bottom dwellers, like angler fish

Re: The Deep Sea

#53
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fish control their buoyancy via a swim bladder. Suddenly bringing up a deep water fish would make it explode. every 33ft up the volume of air doubles. Hence that rule of diving of never holding your breath and continuously letting the air out as you surface. What I find incredible that a seal could dive that deep, the volume of air at that depth would be a tiny fraction of the volume of air at the surface. It is as i…

> Suddenly bringing up a deep water fish would make it explode. every 33ft up the volume of air doubles. I could be missing something, but I don't think this is quite correct. Coming up from the first 33ft (10 meters) of depth, the pressure would go from two bars to one, or half, so the volume would double. But any deeper, the ratio of pressure between the current depth and ten meters shallower isn't double, it's n/(…

I used my recollection from diving instruction and looks like I was off, every 33ft (10 meters) adds one ATM pressure, which, in turn, works as you said.

Every ten meters the volume goes down like so 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5

PS. Fish could still explode tho

Re: The Deep Sea

#54
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes the lungs are collapsed completely. A seal, as I understand it, has extremely haemoglobin rich blood and stores all its oxygen there for the dive.

I read that some seals can also force air into respiratory cavities in their skull, which keeps them from suffering decompression sickness.

this is a good point, there is a lot more to diving really deep than storing a sufficient amount of oxygen. Basic physiological processes work differently at high pressures.

Re: The Deep Sea

#56
The content and presentation is fantastic.

The page is using up 15-20% CPU and GPU when it is the active tab even when not scrolling. That seems unexpected and unfortunate.

(I noticed because by the time I got to 3400 meters, my laptop's fans became audible.)

Re: The Deep Sea

#57
Note that “the oldest species of ” doesn’t make any sense. Both that species as well as its closest evolutionary relative have a last common ancestor, meaning they are equally “old”.

Do this a few times and you will notice all species have the same “age”, assuming life today all descendent from a common ancestor. Yes, some of them have may have changed more or less in appearance, but that correlates poorly with genetic changes.

Re: The Deep Sea

#58
post #19

Elephant Seals dive to 2400 meters and Cuviers Whales to 3000 meters? That's incredible for a mammal.

That is amazing, I wonder how long that journey would be?

Re: The Deep Sea

#59
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is wrong but I am not a biologist. Fish do not contain air, which is the compressible fluid which limits our ability to go to great depths unprotected. Water is very incompressible, and is most of what fish are. So I don't think depth is the issue. I would hazard a guess that it has to do with where food is.

Fish control their buoyancy via a swim bladder. Suddenly bringing up a deep water fish would make it explode. every 33ft up the volume of air doubles. Hence that rule of diving of never holding your breath and continuously letting the air out as you surface. What I find incredible that a seal could dive that deep, the volume of air at that depth would be a tiny fraction of the volume of air at the surface. It is as i…

It's enough of a problem that there's special needles made specifically for puncturing a fish's swim bladder and relieving the pressure:

https://gillz-gear.com/blogs/news/39139841-smart-anglers-und...

Re: The Deep Sea

#60
I was expecting a Cthulhu reference at the deepest point for good fun! Nicely done, but would be nice to also provide indicators of pressure and temperature on the side as you go down.
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