Tag: Titanic

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The Titan Vessel and Piezophysiology

Titanic Resting Spot - The Titan Vessel and Piezophysiology

The recent tragedy with the Titan vessel imploding brings to mind the science of piezophysiology, the study of living organisms under high pressure. The connection between the Titan vessel and piezophysiology is that deep sea fish must survive under massive hydrostatic pressures such as the Titan was subjected to. How do they survive?

Building deep-sea vehicles has been an enormous challenge for engineers. The standard has been to build vessels of titanium in a spherical shape to equalize the water pressure all around. The Titan hull was made of carbon fiber five inches thick, and it was 22 feet long. The elongated shape increased the pressure load on the midsection. The vessel had been subjected to stress during about two-dozen previous dives. Each of those dives might have created small unnoticed cracks in the carbon fibers, like splitting wood along the grain. Those tiny cracks could lead to rapid and catastrophic failure.

Let’s do a little math to get some idea of the amount of water pressure. Water has a density of 62.4 pounds per cubic foot. One mile of water would be 5,280 feet. Each foot of water would put 62.4 pounds on any object one mile down. That would be 329,472 pounds on each square foot of a submarine or a fish. That is 164.7 tons in fresh water and even more in salt water, and the Titanic is about 2.4 miles down.

Water doesn’t freeze at that depth because pressure lowers the freezing point. Those who study piezophysiology tell us that fish living at those depths have flexible bones and cartilage, do not have swim bladders, have special blood adapted to deep-sea conditions, and have bioluminescence to compensate for the darkness of deep ocean environments.

We learn from the Titan vessel and piezophysiology that surviving deep under the ocean requires wise engineering. Humans have much to learn about the creatures of the deep, but the difficulty of visiting deep sea environments limits our knowledge. However, every discovery of piezophysiology and related fields speaks to God’s wisdom and design of life that allows those creatures to exist in a world that is forbidding for humans.

— John N. Clayton © 2023

References: Oxford Academic, quora.com, and “How the unconventional design of the Titan sub may have destined it for disaster” in apnews.com

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The Titanic is Disappearing

The Titanic is Disappearing

The ship once thought to be unsinkable and made for an infinite existence not only sank but is also being dissolved. It is losing hundreds of pounds of iron each day thanks to metal-eating bacteria and deep-sea currents. As a result, the Titanic is disappearing from the bottom of the ocean.

A company known as OceanGate Expeditions is starting a project to visit the Titanic wreckage annually to monitor and chronicle the ship’s deterioration. It has been 109 years since the ship sank. Since researchers discovered it in 1985, the mast is gone, and the ship’s railing is about to collapse. The captain’s bathtub has dissolved, and the crow’s nest from which the lookout shouted, “Iceberg, straight ahead!” is gone.

What most of us don’t realize is that there are bacteria in the ocean that consume iron. The wreck of the Titanic is disappearing more and more each day. Researchers are interested in recording this process to understand how other shipwrecks, such as nuclear submarines, are broken down. Wealthy tourists are funding the Titanic research, but scientists are interested in underwater ecosystems spawned by shipwrecks like the Titanic.

As the Titanic is disappearing, it reminds us of the insignificance of human artifacts. Therefore, we should not place our hope in man-made things. Ships, buildings, and monuments will all eventually be reduced to dust. This design of Earth allows the recycling of resources. It also underlines the importance of putting your trust in “treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (Matthew 6:20).

— John N. Clayton © 2021

Data from AP release by Ben Finley in The Herald Bulletin, July 3, 2021.