Tied to an Anchor and Dropped Two Miles Underwater

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]If you were tied to an anchor and dropped, say, to the depth of the Titanic, what exactly would happen? And what would you feel? Would you last all the way to the bottom? Would you drown first? Or would you implode within the first minute? I can tell you it's far worse than you think. Ever since the Titan sub disaster, everyone has seen the effects of pressure deep underwater.

[00:00:22]But the human body is not a uniform object like the Titan sub where we can say, "Yeah, this happens." The body is made of dense solids, soft tissues, hollow cavities, and on top of all of this is 60% water. It's very different.

[00:00:37]At the depths of the Titanic, it's not the lack of air that determines how long you live. It's the pressure. Because of this, it's really important to know how fast you'll be sinking, mostly because we'll know at what time you'll be exposed to lethal pressure and also what you'll be feeling at every second of the descent. To find this out, we have to know what kind of anchor we're using and how fast it falls. If you're thinking of a traditional catch anchor, unfortunately, there is not a lot of data on descent speed. They vary in size, shape, and weight. So, it's hard to find an accurate standard. However, one anchor design that does have a lot of data on descent speed are torpedo anchors. In part, thanks to deep water moing research from oil companies.

[00:01:19]Torpedo anchors are enormously heavy anchors that are used to keep floating oil rigs attached to the ocean floor.

[00:01:25]They have a streamlined design that minimizes drag, so it descends very quickly. They measure about 50 ft tall and weigh 80 tons. When they reach the ocean floor, they often penetrate over 100 ft deep. Based on extensive testing, we know the average speed of a torpedo anchor is 50.3 mph. If you were tied to this anchor, you would reach the Titanic with a depth of 2.5 m in roughly 3 minutes. The deeper you are underwater, the higher the pressure. This is because there is more water pushing down on you at higher depths. For every 33 ft you descend, pressure increases by 1 atmosphere or 14.6 psi. The pressure you experience at sea level is 1 atmosphere.

[00:02:08]Based on the descent of the torpedo anchor, pressure increases about 2.2 2 atmospheres for every second of the descent. Without further ado, let's drop the anchor.

[00:02:19]It takes about 5 seconds for the anchor to get to its top speed of 50.3 mph. At 5 seconds, you would be at a depth of 240 ft. Pressure this deep is 8.27 atmospheres or 121 lb per square in. 8 times higher than pressure at sea level.

[00:02:37]At this depth, you're still conscious.

[00:02:39]The rapid increase in pressure does not give the air behind your eardrums a chance to equilibrate with the new pressure. The air is instantly compressed, causing your eardrum and the tissue around it to rupture inward, causing tissue damage, bleeding, and a sharp pain in your ears. At this pressure, air is compressed to 12% its normal volume. This also means your lungs will shrink to 12% of their original size as the air inside them is compressed. This is known as lung squeeze, and many free divers experience it when they dive too deep. If you want to try to simulate how this feels, take a deep breath and exhale for 10 seconds.

[00:03:14]At the end of your exhale, you can feel your lungs squeezing tighter and tighter in your chest. But keep in mind, this is only 20% of the original volume. At 5 seconds tied to the anchor, they're at 12%. It's really quite horrific. As the air volume in your chest decreases, there's lower pressure in the lungs. As a result of physics, blood that's at a higher pressure in your extremities flow into your lungs. This is called blood shift and happens because pressure flows from high to low. Under these conditions, your lungs will be squeezed into a smaller size while also becoming engorged with more blood. But it's not just the air in your lungs that's affected. Nitrogen gas in your blood is also compressed. As pressure increases, it begins to dissolve into organs, tissue, and even individual cells.

[00:04:01]Nitrogen gas that dissolves into neurons in the central nervous system causes them to swell up. This swelling slows down nerve transmissions due to a phenomenon called nitrogen narcosis.

[00:04:12]Under high enough pressure, nitrogen begins to act as a narcotic and produces a depressant effect similar to alcohol intoxication.

[00:04:20]At 8 atmospheres of pressure, nitrogen narcosis causes dizziness, impaired judgment, hallucinations, and delayed responses. At 10 seconds, you're 590 ft deep with a pressure of 19 atmospheres or 279 lb per square in. Air is compressed to 5% its original volume.

[00:04:39]Your lungs are squeezed beyond their physiological limits and begin to tear and bleed profusely. Nitrogen narcosis at 19 atmospheres of pressure is roughly equal to a BAC of 0.4%.

[00:04:52]This results in profound confusion, loss of reflexes, intense hallucinations, and memory loss. At 19 atmospheres of pressure, you can still be alive. In fact, the world record for deepest free dive by a human being is 830 ft deep. In 2012, Austrian free diver Herbert Nish set the deepest free dive record. He used a weighted sled to descend and had no air supplies, scuba gear, or pressure suit. At 830 ft deep, he was exposed to 26.2 2 atmospheres of pressure or 385 lb per square in. He only experiences pressure for a few seconds and then used a lift bag to ascend back to the surface, taking him 4 minutes. However, the dive was not without risk. He experienced severe decompression sickness, had several brain strokes and memory loss. Nonetheless, it is still possible to be alive at this depth. At 15 seconds, you're 1,100 ft deep with 34.3 atmospheres or 504 lb per square in. Here, air is compressed to 3% its original volume. If you brought down a beach ball to this depth, it would be the size of an orange. Your lungs have been forcefully squeezed into the size of a tennis ball. At 34 atmospheres, the pressure is enough to compress the air in your sinus cavities. Sinus tissue ruptures and implodes inward. Blood pours out your sinuses, down the back of your throat, out your nose and eyes.

[00:06:15]Nitrogen narcosis has depressed the nervous system so much that high demand functions like consciousness totally fail. As a result, you black out. Your mouth muscles relax, water rushes in, and you drown. All in all, you black out within the first 15 to 20 seconds and would drown within the first minute.

[00:06:35]While you would experience the horrific sensation of your eardrums rupturing, lungs being squeezed into the size of a tennis ball, and sinuses imploding, you wouldn't feel anything else after about 20 seconds. The depressant effects of nitrogen narcosis may even dampen some of the sensations similar to how alcohol would. Now, you may be asking, at what point during the descent will you implode like the Titan submersible?

[00:07:00]Well, the answer is never. No matter how bad you want to believe the human body implodes at 2 and 1/2 m underwater, it simply doesn't. People confuse the implosion of the Titan sub with the human body. They think everything at those depths will implode from the pressure. But there's a difference. The Titan submersible was a hollow container full of compressible air. When the structural integrity gave way, the pressure compressed the gases by imploding the shell. The passengers themselves did not implode. They were crushed. The human body is made of water-rich tissue and water, just like solids, cannot be compressed. This is why there's so many wellpreserved artifacts at the Titanic Rex site. Any liquid or solid parts of the body, like skin, bone, and blood filled organs would stay intact despite the immense pressure. But that's not to say some parts of the body won't implode. At 2.5 mi deep, the pressure is 360 atmospheres. Air is compressed down to 0.27% 27% of its original volume. All air fil cavities like your lungs, sinus cavities, intestines, and any residual air pockets would be squeezed to implosion.

[00:08:09]Now, I wish I could tell you there are no real world examples of people being tied to an anchor and thrown overboard.

[00:08:15]But unfortunately, there is.

[00:08:18]In November of 2004, Thomas and Jackie Hawks, a couple from Prescott, Arizona, were the victims of such a gruesome fate. After selling their McDonald's franchise, the couple bought a yacht and plan to spend their retirement traveling along the California coast. Wishing to move closer to their grandchildren, they put up their yacht for sale in a boating magazine. Skyler Deleó and Jennifer Henderson answered as prospective buyers. The Hawks were initially skeptical, but were more open to the couple when they discovered that Henderson was pregnant. On the day of the test drive, Deleó was joined by accompllices John Kennedy, who posed as his accountant, and Alonzo Machin. Once out at sea, they overpowered the Hawks with a taser and handcuffs and forced them to sign over their yacht and bank accounts. Afterwards, they programmed the ship's GPS to sail toward Catalina Island to head for the deepest part of the ocean. Skyler Deleó and John Kennedy tied Thomas and Jackie Hawks to a 50-lb anchor and threw them overboard, still alive, where they sank to a depth of 3,500 ft. Their bodies were never found.

[00:09:24]Days later, Skyler and Jennifer were flagged when they tried to withdraw money from the Hawk's bank account.

[00:09:30]Alonzo Machine was questioned by the police under suspicion and confessed to the murders. Skyler Deleó and John Kennedy were both sentenced to death.

[00:09:39]Henderson received two life sentences and Alonzo Machain took a plea deal resulting in 20 years in prison.

[00:09:46]Sometimes science can be seen as difficult, foreign, and even boring.

[00:09:51]Yet, there are times when science grabs our attention and draws us in, yearning for more answers. Often, what draws us in are topics that are dark, macob, or terrifying. It's with the intention of this video that you too were drawn in and sought to have your questions answered. Thanks for watching Dark Science.