The Titan submersible saw a tragic end. There were five people in the vessel and they experienced a sad demise due to the tragedy. The Titan submersible lost contact with the support ship at the time of the dive to the Titanic wreckage site in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard and the OceanGate Expeditions declared all five people on board were believed to be dead.
What are the key reasons due to why the tragedy took place? Let's find out.
Earlier, the Coast Guard stated that the rescuers had uncovered a field of debris under the search region, where teams were looking for the missing Titan submersible traveling to the Titanic wreck.
Pieces of debris have been found on the ocean floor where the Titan submersible was, by a remote-controlled underwater search vehicle. This debris was found around 488 meters away from the bow of the Titanic on the floor of the ocean.
The debris that was found pointed out toward a "catastrophic implosion of the vessel", as stated by USCG Rear Admiral John Mauger, on Thursday.
How did the Titan implode?
While the exact nature of the incident is still unknown, experts suggest that the implosion may have occurred on the very first day of the dive, i.e., on Sunday.
The Titan was designed of titanium and carbon fiber. these materials are thought to tolerate the pressure at about 4,000 meters of depth. The hull of the craft was designed to safeguard the crew from the pressure of the water.
The pressure of the water 3,800 meters down at the area of the Titanic wreck is around 400 atmospheres. This is great pressure.
“Any deep divers know how unforgiving the abyssal plain is: going undersea is as, if not more, challenging than going into space from an engineering perspective," expressed the director of the Shipbuilding Hub for Integrated Engineering at the University of Adelaide, Eric Fusil.
Experts raise a brow at the use of carbon fiber and titanium for deep diving, as both have different properties.
Why do experts question the use of carbon fiber and titanium?
This is because both materials have distinct properties. On one side, Titanium is elastic in nature, It can adapt to a vast multitude of stresses and pressures sans any permanent strain on titanium itself. However, carbon fiber is non-elastic in nature. It is stiff and thus can be cracked under pressure.
This difference in both materials, as said by Eric Fusil, could have created the formation of a defect in the hull of the vessel. While the exact nature of the incident is unknown to everyone, experts of this view speculate that the defect thus created in the hull made has led to an instantaneous implosion caused due to great underwater pressure. Fusil further assumes that within a time frame of less than a second, the Titan vessel would have crumpled from all sides, being pushed down due to the weight of a 3,800m column of water.
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