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Silly question, could it have been an animal? Would hitting a full-grown blue whale or anything less at 30 knots cause such a disturbance? Also is there any way
by holler 5y ago
Silly question, could it have been an animal? Would hitting a full-grown blue whale or anything less at 30 knots cause such a disturbance? Also is there any way to detect marine life at close proximity?
I saw the story about USS San Francisco earlier today and that led me to reading about the USS Thresher... Really sad story but it led to changes that years later resulted in the USS SF surviving intact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)
- speedybird 5y agoA grown blue whale weights about 1/50th of the submarine (~200 tons vs ~10k tons) and is quite a bit squishier. But maybe that would still be enough to knock some submariners around and cause some injuries? I'm not sure.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoIf you hit a 60lb object while driving your car you'll know.
- VWWHFSfQ 5y agoIf you're driving a ~3,200lb Honda Accord, sure. But the mass difference at the scale of 10,000 tons is a lot different. Especially under water.
- adwww 5y agoI think the weight difference is more like hitting a badger with a fully loaded semi truck.
- 542354234235 5y agoThis sounds like a job for the Mythbusters.
- Chris2048 5y agoBut the dynamics of large things change, because the bond-strength of metals don't scale up as you build bigger things. Also, this happened underwater, so the harder-to-displace water would give more resistance ("inertia"?) to the whale maybe?
- InsomniacL 5y agoA grown blue whale is about 1/5 the length of the USS Connecticut. If a submarine crashed in to a whale, it would not only have the forces of trying to accelerate the mass of the whale, it has to accelerate an object with a large surface area under water. Aerodynamics vs hydrodynamics might skew your perception of the forces involved.
- Tuna-Fish 5y agoWell no, because it will be less of "submarine crashes into a whale and pushes it forwards" and more "submarine swims partially in whale". Compared to the forces involved, living tissue just isn't that strong.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- detritus 5y agoInterestingly, there was this a recently.. https://www.newsweek.com/mizushima-whale-death-photos-japan-ship-strike-1632925 https://www.newsweek.com/mizushima-whale-death-photos-japan-...
- foolfoolz 5y agoin the indo pacific region?
- speedybird 5y agoBlue whales are basically everywhere: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale#/media/File:Cypron-Range_Balaenoptera_musculus.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale#/media/File:Cypron-...
- foolfoolz 5y agothis is super cool