Author: smegown

If you’ve ever been at the bottom of a deep pool or body of water, then you’ve been able to feel some effects of water, also known as hydrostatic, pressure. Your ears begin to pop, your nasal cavity starts to feel a lot of pressure, and your eyes begin to feel compressed. Now imagine diving 10,000 ft deep, where you’d feel 300 times the pressure you would feel during that small dive. Your bones would begin to crush and crack, your lungs would collapse, and much more. We still know very little about the ocean–it is said that we know more about outer space than the ocean–but as we keep exploring, we learn more about different deep sea creatures–aquatic animals residing over 1,000 m below sea level–and how they survive such immense hydrostatic pressure at abysmal depths. By discovering more about their physical adaptations, we can design better vehicles or modes of withstanding these high pressures to venture deeper into the sea. So, how do these creatures survive such immense pressures? What do they have biomechanically that we don’t possess?