4 ms·

Reminds me of the fantastic movie The Abyss (1)...vaguely recall a similar scene where there's N tanks of oxygen for N+1 people, so they submerge 1 of the crew

by latch 7y ago

Reminds me of the fantastic movie The Abyss (1)...vaguely recall a similar scene where there's N tanks of oxygen for N+1 people, so they submerge 1 of the crew to lower her (i think) metabolic rate. Curious why they don't have emergency unmanned drones with the crew or why they don't have emergency tanks at their work site (which he was able to get back to) (1) - Not sure how well it has aged (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyss)

cstrat 7y ago
Yeah even if the unmanned drones are too hard, having spare tanks at the work site sounds like an easy way to at least supply oxygen... however without the umbilical cord he loses the heat supply. Maybe its more pleasant to pass out while your body freezes.
- killjoywashere 7y ago
  Getting cold probably saved his life by reducing the metabolic burden. This is done intentionally during certain surgeries, such as aortic aneurysm repairs. It also informs the ER standard: you're not dead until you're warm and dead. Also, it's staggering how much oxygen can be dissolved into your system at depth. The Navy did some experiments where they put pigs in a chamber, pressurized them to something obscene, like 300 feet, and replaced their blood with water. The oxygen diffused so well the pigs were still conscious and walking around. Source: I work with a lot of Navy dive medicine officers.
  - nradov 7y ago
    That's also why hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an effective treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning. Even when all the hemoglobin receptors are bound to carbon monoxide, enough oxygen will diffuse into the blood to keep the patient alive.
    - Robotbeat 7y ago
      That’s fascinating.
  - cstrat 7y ago
    Yeah that's amazing isn't it. Replacing blood with water sounds like magic though. The blood does more than just carry oxygen doesn't it? I was just saying though, if he did have more oxygen down there he would have had to be awake for that freezing experience...
    - namibj 7y ago
      Or with blood plasma, maybe.
maxerickson 7y ago
She chooses to drown with the idea that she can be revived quickly enough to survive. They aren't trying to share oxygen or anything.
nradov 7y ago
Commercial divers do have extra breathing gas in the bell, which is positioned at their work site. The problem in this case was the bell was dragged out of position.
dmead 7y ago
IIRC the rig was moved out of place. they were already having massive problems at that point in the film. fun facts about the abysss. 1. it's a version of the divine comedy, particularly the inferno. 2. the set still exists as of a several years ago https://io9.gizmodo.com/take-a-tour-of-the-abandoned-remains-of-the-abyss-movie-5841253 https://io9.gizmodo.com/take-a-tour-of-the-abandoned-remains...
X6S1x6Okd1st 7y ago
At least for recreational diving each diver has two regulators attached to their tank, so if you have N tanks you can provide breathing gas to 2N people.
- garmaine 7y ago
  The movie involves hard dive suits, not SCUBA regulators. But you'd think there'd be an extra emergency regulator hanging off the tank...
  - nradov 7y ago
    Commercial diving rigs don't have extra "octopus" regulators attached to the bailout tank. The divers wear hard hats with integrated regs plus free flow valves so an extra reg would be pointless.
jdietrich 7y ago
>Curious why they don't have emergency unmanned drones with the crew or why they don't have emergency tanks at their work site (which he was able to get back to) There was a UUV in the water, which helped to locate the casualty but wasn't capable of performing a rescue. Bailing out to open-circuit SCUBA doesn't help for very long, because of the immense pressures involved. As you go deeper, you need more pressure to inflate your lungs. A cylinder that lasts for an hour near the surface will only last for a couple of minutes at 100m. Tethered divers do carry bailout gas cylinders, but they're very much a temporary fix for brief losses of gas supply. There are major logistical problems with portering dozens of gas cylinders to a job site that may actually increase the overall risk, because of the far greater time spent in the water. That pile of cylinders won't help you a jot if you lose the job site or you're incapacitated. Saturation divers are increasingly switching to closed-circuit rebreather bailout systems, which recirculate the breathing gas and so are far less affected by depth. Even that is only a partial help because of the effects of hypothermia - if you lose your umbilical, you lose the warm water supply that stops you from freezing to death. You also lose your lighting and communications, which substantially impedes your ability to self-rescue. https://www.jfdglobal.com/products/commercial-divers-equipment/rebreathers/cobra-compact-bailout-rebreathing-apparatus/ https://www.jfdglobal.com/products/commercial-divers-equipme...
- LeifCarrotson 7y ago
  > A cylinder that lasts for an hour near the surface will only last for a couple of minutes at 100m And unfortunately for saturation divers, you can't pressurize cylinders on-site to make up for the difference. Pressurizing your tank to 210 bar (which puts the same stress on the cylinder walls as 200 bar at the surface) doesn't change the factor-of-10 increase on the other side of your P1V1=P2V2 balance. Not to mention that you need even more air for decompression time...

by latch 7y ago

cstrat 7y ago

Yeah even if the unmanned drones are too hard, having spare tanks at the work site sounds like an easy way to at least supply oxygen... however without the umbilical cord he loses the heat supply. Maybe its more pleasant to pass out while your body freezes.

killjoywashere 7y ago
Getting cold probably saved his life by reducing the metabolic burden. This is done intentionally during certain surgeries, such as aortic aneurysm repairs. It also informs the ER standard: you're not dead until you're warm and dead. Also, it's staggering how much oxygen can be dissolved into your system at depth. The Navy did some experiments where they put pigs in a chamber, pressurized them to something obscene, like 300 feet, and replaced their blood with water. The oxygen diffused so well the pigs were still conscious and walking around. Source: I work with a lot of Navy dive medicine officers.
- nradov 7y ago
  That's also why hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an effective treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning. Even when all the hemoglobin receptors are bound to carbon monoxide, enough oxygen will diffuse into the blood to keep the patient alive.
  - Robotbeat 7y ago
    That’s fascinating.
- cstrat 7y ago
  Yeah that's amazing isn't it. Replacing blood with water sounds like magic though. The blood does more than just carry oxygen doesn't it? I was just saying though, if he did have more oxygen down there he would have had to be awake for that freezing experience...
  - namibj 7y ago
    Or with blood plasma, maybe.

maxerickson 7y ago

She chooses to drown with the idea that she can be revived quickly enough to survive. They aren't trying to share oxygen or anything.

nradov 7y ago

Commercial divers do have extra breathing gas in the bell, which is positioned at their work site. The problem in this case was the bell was dragged out of position.

dmead 7y ago

IIRC the rig was moved out of place. they were already having massive problems at that point in the film. fun facts about the abysss. 1. it's a version of the divine comedy, particularly the inferno. 2. the set still exists as of a several years ago https://io9.gizmodo.com/take-a-tour-of-the-abandoned-remains-of-the-abyss-movie-5841253 https://io9.gizmodo.com/take-a-tour-of-the-abandoned-remains...

X6S1x6Okd1st 7y ago

At least for recreational diving each diver has two regulators attached to their tank, so if you have N tanks you can provide breathing gas to 2N people.

garmaine 7y ago
The movie involves hard dive suits, not SCUBA regulators. But you'd think there'd be an extra emergency regulator hanging off the tank...
- nradov 7y ago
  Commercial diving rigs don't have extra "octopus" regulators attached to the bailout tank. The divers wear hard hats with integrated regs plus free flow valves so an extra reg would be pointless.

jdietrich 7y ago

>Curious why they don't have emergency unmanned drones with the crew or why they don't have emergency tanks at their work site (which he was able to get back to) There was a UUV in the water, which helped to locate the casualty but wasn't capable of performing a rescue. Bailing out to open-circuit SCUBA doesn't help for very long, because of the immense pressures involved. As you go deeper, you need more pressure to inflate your lungs. A cylinder that lasts for an hour near the surface will only last for a couple of minutes at 100m. Tethered divers do carry bailout gas cylinders, but they're very much a temporary fix for brief losses of gas supply. There are major logistical problems with portering dozens of gas cylinders to a job site that may actually increase the overall risk, because of the far greater time spent in the water. That pile of cylinders won't help you a jot if you lose the job site or you're incapacitated. Saturation divers are increasingly switching to closed-circuit rebreather bailout systems, which recirculate the breathing gas and so are far less affected by depth. Even that is only a partial help because of the effects of hypothermia - if you lose your umbilical, you lose the warm water supply that stops you from freezing to death. You also lose your lighting and communications, which substantially impedes your ability to self-rescue. https://www.jfdglobal.com/products/commercial-divers-equipment/rebreathers/cobra-compact-bailout-rebreathing-apparatus/ https://www.jfdglobal.com/products/commercial-divers-equipme...

LeifCarrotson 7y ago
> A cylinder that lasts for an hour near the surface will only last for a couple of minutes at 100m And unfortunately for saturation divers, you can't pressurize cylinders on-site to make up for the difference. Pressurizing your tank to 210 bar (which puts the same stress on the cylinder walls as 200 bar at the surface) doesn't change the factor-of-10 increase on the other side of your P1V1=P2V2 balance. Not to mention that you need even more air for decompression time...