How deep did the submersible go that went missing? Water pressure at Titanic depth explored in wake of catastrophic implosion 

On Thursday, June 22, it was announced that the missing submersible Titan was destroyed following a "catastrophic implosion." The announcement was unanimous by all the parties involved in the search and rescue mission, including the US and Canadian Coast Guards, the navies of both the nation, and OceanGate.

OceanGate is the company that owned the submersible. Its mothership was the Polar Prince, a Canadian vessel with which it lost all communication only 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive on the morning of Sunday, June 18. The submersible was on its way to the Titanic wreckage site that lies 3810 meters into the North Atlantic Ocean, near Newfoundland, from where it had commenced its journey.

Titan had five people on board when it disappeared. Experts presume that the submersible was near the Titanic site at around 3810 meters when it imploded. However, the exact depth hasn’t been revealed yet.

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The Titan submersible may have faced water pressure of roughly 6000 psi

On Thursday, a remotely-operated robotic diving vehicle deployed by the search and rescue parties detected five major pieces from the Titan submersible, including two parts of the pressure chamber, the nose cone, the front-end bell, and the aft-end bell, both portions of the pressure hull. They were found 1600 feet away from the Titanic wreckage site.

US Coast Guard Admiral said that the debris was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel” during a press conference in Boston. This means that it is challenging to determine the exact timeline of the events.

However, the initial analysis has offered some valuable insight. For instance, the Titan was still on its descent when it imploded. Next, it required extreme force and speed for such a “catastrophic implosion,” considering the incredible and crushing water pressure near the ocean floor.

As already mentioned, the Titanic ruins sit at a depth of 3810 meters on the sea floor of the North Atlantic Ocean. Now, at sea level, the atmospheric pressure is 14.7 pounds psi (per square inch), and the water pressure where the iconic ocean liner lies is equivalent to 400 atmospheric pressures. This means that the force is almost 6000 psi. To put the matter in perspective, collision with a large great white shark exerts a pressure of 4000 psi, and what the Titan faced was way beyond that.

As for what could have caused such an implosion, experts suggest a defect in the cabin’s pressure hull that would have damaged the submersible within a few milliseconds. However, it could have also been something else entirely, something too violent. The rest was the doing of the extreme water pressure. As such, under no circumstances could the Titan or its passengers have survived such an implosion.

Locating the front-end bell and the aft-end bell of the vessel together confirmed the nature of the catastrophe, after which the announcement was made. However, a thorough investigation is still awaited, for which other debris needs to be restored. Interestingly, the Titan possibly imploded way before the search and rescue operations began on Monday.

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In brief, looking at the Titan submersible

The Titan submersible was 6.7 meters by 2.8 meters in dimension. Its viewport was 53 centimeters wide and was made of titanium and carbon-wound filament and weighed 10.4 pounds. Its speed was three knots and had four electric thrusters, two vertical and two horizontal. Additionally, the Titan had 96 hours of oxygen supply for five people. It could reach a depth of 4000 meters.

The vessel was an eight-day expedition from St. John’s in Newfoundland and a six to eight hours dive. The five people on board, who are now presumed to be dead, were Stockton Rush, CEO and founder of OceanGate as the pilot, French submersible specialist Paul-Henry Nargeolet as a crew content expert and three tourists, Pakistani business tycoon Shahzada Dawood, his son Sulaiman, and British billionaire businessman and explorer Hamish Harding. The guests each paid 250,000 dollars for the trip.

Previously, OceanGate conducted two successful expeditions to the Titanic wreckage site in 2021 and 2022. The expedition promised a lifetime experience of looking first-hand at Titanic’s “massive scale of the wreck.”