How quickly does catastrophic decompression happen?

Here's a video of the Mythbusters causing catastrophic decompression on a tanker...


It's fast here... but it was likely explosive decompression on the sub. Like a lightbulb.

It is not decompression. It is implosion. The outside pressure difference to the inside pressure exceeds the structure's ability to withstand it.

This tanker car crushed at approximately only 12psi pressure difference. The pressure difference the sub imploded at was approx 1600psi.
At that pressure difference, the walls are moving faster than a bullet. The air inside is compressed so fast by the implosion that it's heated almost to the temperature of the surface of the Sun. Everyone in the sub was turned instantly into cooked goo and then ejected into the sea. Crab food now. Just a few milliseconds.

At least they didn't feel pain. They didn't even see it happen. The nervous system is too slow to relay the sensor information to the brain. They were there, then suddenly they weren't.
 
Maybe, but I also have seen a claim that they knew the hull was failing and tried to come up.....I have no idea of the validity of the claim.

No. Catastrophic implosion occurs in just a few milliseconds. They didn't even know it happened before they were gone.
 
You wouldn't feel it. You wouldn't even see it happen. The nervous system is too slow.

you just blew my mind.

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You don't know that. Human remains are being recovered, blowing away the theory they "disintegrated."

Fact is, no one can say with certainty what happened, what they knew in advance.

The facts of 5500 PSI against the human body say the bodies were instantly disintegrated. Sure, there may be bone fragments, but don't believe there are corpses down there after such an event.
 
The facts of 5500 PSI against the human body say the bodies were instantly disintegrated. Sure, there may be bone fragments, but don't believe there are corpses down there after such an event.
The vessel was not disintegrated, there were big pieces and panels they retrieved. No one knows if they knew they were in trouble. I read they dropped the weights so they must have known something was up.
 
You don't know that.
I do know that. It is a consequence of catastrophic implosion at those depths.
Human remains are being recovered, blowing away the theory they "disintegrated."
Blatant lie. There are no human remains.
Fact is, no one can say with certainty what happened, what they knew in advance.
They had no warning. There is no warning. It just happens suddenly. They didn't even know it happened. They felt no pain. Their eyes could not even get a signal to the brain fast enough even begin the recognition process.
 
The vessel was not disintegrated,
The vessel disintegrated. The carbon fiber tube collapsed. All that's left of the sub is a few pieces, notably the titanium rings and end fairings.
there were big pieces and panels they retrieved.
So? The sub disintegrated. It's no long a sub. It's just a few parts and shredded carbon fiber scattered on the ocean floor.
No one knows if they knew they were in trouble.
They didn't. There is no warning. It just happens suddenly. It's so fast no signal from any sensor in their bodies (including eyesight and hearing) would have time to reach the brain.
I read they dropped the weights so they must have known something was up.
No. The weights are some of the pieces found on the ocean floor near the other wreckage. They had no warning. They were just suddenly dead.
 
The vessel was not disintegrated, there were big pieces and panels they retrieved. No one knows if they knew they were in trouble. I read they dropped the weights so they must have known something was up.

Agreed about the vessel. It's the bodies that would have been disintegrated by the sudden pressure change. We're basically waterbags, about the consistency of watermelons tossed off a roof to the concrete driveway.

If they dropped the weights, I agree they were returning. I don't know the design so it's possible the weights dropped automatically at decompression.
 
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