The definition of ‘catastrophic implosion’ is making Titan mourners understandably queasy

The Titan submersible tragedy has reached an unfortunate conclusion, with new details about what probably happened to the five passengers on board. The key phrase rising from the ocean of media reports is “catastrophic implosion” as the cause. But not everyone understands the real-life implication of the phrase, so many have provided detailed descriptions of the phenomena, leaving hearts freshly horrified by what the crew onboard the Titan possibly faced towards the end.

One terrifying explanation has been provided by author and podcaster Kate Lister, who claims her “brother is an engineer in the Navy” and “literally builds and operates submarines.” When she asked him to define catastrophic implosion, he gave a sobering response.

When there’s a leak in the sub, all of the water pressure outside will try to force itself inside and the internal pressure will go from one atmosphere to 400 atmospheres in “thousands of a second.” When we say “atmospheres,” we mean atmospheric pressure. Basically, when there’s a leak, the air inside the sub heats up to match the “pressure increase,” so the people probably died before they realized anything was wrong.

Another tweet came from Oli London, who claims to have gleaned some information from “Dave Corley, former Nuke sub officer.” London offered a bit more insight into exactly what happens during the implosion.

“When a submarine hull collapses, it moves inward at about 1,500 miles per hour – that’s 2,200 feet per second. The time required for complete collapse is 20 / 2,200 seconds = about 1 millisecond.” That’s very fast, too fast for a human brain, which at its best can respond to stimuli at “150 milliseconds.”

What is particularly horrifying is the next part of the explanation, which details how the explosion that follows will turn any living soul into “ash and dust quicker than you can blink your eye.”

The heart-rending picture painted by these explanations has left many shell-shocked, while some commenters have found some solace in the fact that if an implosion is indeed the cause, the Titan’s crew escaped “the excruciating death of no oxygen.”

At this point, the debris discovered near the Titanic and the revelation that an implosion-like sound was heard after the submersible went under the ocean surface is the only evidence backing the possibility that the Titan imploded. Right now people are conjecturing it was a hull breach, but per Al Jazeera, “debris will need to be recovered to carry out a full investigation. And even then, it may not be easy to pinpoint the cause.”

But as the implosion was exceptionally “violent,” it’s going to be hard to piece things together. So far, the United States Coast has located five parts of the sub. The investigation will continue with no timeframe, the Coast Guard said.