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Old 01-24-2007, 04:42 PM   #31
ken0042
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Join Date: Apr 2004
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hack&Lube View Post
Deep ocean pressure is just the weight of millions of tons of water above you. It'll crush or compress anything whether or not it has air in it. If you bring something designed for the deep up to the surface rapidly, it'll have the opposite problem of expansion. Can anybody say exploding fish?
I found a link that shows where we are both a little wrong. I was correct that water being a liquid does indeed not compress (or at least not very much.) However the same link goes on to explain that most fish; including deep sea fish, have a gas bladder inside them to control boyancy. And it's that gas bladder that causes the deep sea fish to explode when brought up close to the surface.

http://www.fathom.com/course/10701050/session1.html

(read the part called "The Problem of Pressure" to the bottom right hand side of the picture of the Earth.)
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