Gruesome ‘MythBusters’ Clip Demonstrates What an Underwater Implosion Does to the Human Body

If you thought it was poor timing for Netflix to add Titanic to their library one week after it was confirmed that the missing Titan had imploded, you’re not going to like this resurfaced MythBusters clip.

In Season 7, Episode 19 of the show — which aired in 2009 — hosts Jessi Combs, Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and the late Grant Imahara investigated what would happen to a person’s body if the pressurization in an old diving suit were to fail — and the results were grisly.

The trio used a meat mannequin made of pig parts with “bones, muscle, fat, skin and a midsection of guts” to conduct their experiment. They then put the dummy in a diving suit and lowered it 300 feet underwater, where it gruesomely exploded upon being cut off from its air supply.

“It was like an explosion inside the suit,” Combs said after the experiment. “Completely unexpected but totally awesome.”

Imahara added, “The name of this game is differential pressure. They can withstand a huge amount of pressure when they are equalized, but as soon as you take away all the pressure on the inside … Crush.”

I keep hearing reporters ask about bodies, well.
This is the effect on a “a human shaped dummy made of pig parts w/ bones muscle fat skin & mid section of guts.” at 135psi in comparison, the depths of the titanic would be around an implosion at 5,600-6,000psi.
Thanks mythbusters? pic.twitter.com/fndcfZQWbH

— ChudsOfTikTok (@ChudsOfTikTok) June 22, 2023

The clip began making rounds on Twitter after the OceanGate Expeditions submarine — which was bringing five people to see the Titanic wreckage at the bottom of the ocean — went missing for four days before a debris field was found, confirming that it had suffered a “catastrophic implosion” and killed all its passengers.

“I keep hearing reporters ask about bodies, well,” the Twitter user who posted the video captioned. “This is the effect on a ‘a human shaped dummy made of pig parts w/ bones muscle fat skin & mid section of guts’ at 135psi in comparison, the depths of the titanic would be around an implosion at 5,600-6,000psi. Thanks mythbusters?”

While the idea is similar, the passengers on the submarine were not wearing diving suits and they were traveling much deeper than 300 feet — so they likely experienced the implosion at a much faster speed. Science writer David Pogue said the group likely died “instantaneously,” per Business Insider.

“Remember, as we know, at those pressures, if a molecule of water gets in, it’s over instantly,” he said. “I know it’s no great comfort to the families and the spouses, but they did die instantaneously. They were not even aware that anything was wrong.”