The OceanGate submarine tragedy back in June 2023 left many people wondering quite how far your body would be able to withstand the effects of the the deep sea, and one gruesome and graphic simulation provides that answer at 3,800 meters below the ocean's surface.
While humans are capable of surviving in water providing you regularly return to the surface for air, there's only so far you can delve down below before things start to get really complicated.
Estimates provided by the National Ocean Service indicate that the average depth of the ocean is around 12,090 feet (3,682 meters), but that obviously varies considerably depending on where you are in the world.
It's not necessarily the horrifying creatures that lie in wait at the ocean's floor that you need to be worried about though, as its the sheer amount of pressure that you'll encounter that'll tear your body apart in an instant.
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Right now, the furthest anyone's managed to survive in a free dive is 831 feet, achieved by Austrian-born Herbert Nitsch, and he somehow managed to survive pressure levels around 26 times greater than you typically feel on Earth.
As a result of this dive he experienced extreme decompression syndrome, resulting in several brain strokes after the fact, but the results of delving even further would have left him in considerably worse condition.
Revealed by SciScape in a graphic simulation on YouTube, the roughly 3,800 meters that the OceanGate submarine delved towards the Titanic's wreck would leave your body in a horrific state if you did somehow happen to reach that far, although some have found peace in the speed at which the decompression occurs.
The implosion itself lasts for just 20 milliseconds, with your brain then responding to the pain for around 150 milliseconds afterwards. In total, the compression results in an force equal to around 50 kilograms of TNT explosives, so it's certainly something you'd want to avoid.
The simulation shows your body not only being crushed by the implosive force, but torn apart afterwards, sending your tissue flying and leaving little trace that you even existed.
"I'm no doctor but this looks serious," wrote one comment with a facetious tone, and another added that anyone affected by this pressure would 'know nothing', noting that it occurs "too fast even to feel the pain."
Of course, the only situation that would allow this to ever happen would be finding yourself at that depth with something akin to a submarine, as you would be dead far sooner if you attempted to reach that point with just your body alone.