The unofficial videos show just how quick and devastating the process would have been (Picture: REX / sincerelybootz)
Independent 3D artists have shared videos depicting what might have happened during the suspected implosion of the Titan sub.
Investigators believe the vessel was destroyed some time after losing communications last Sunday.
They came to the conclusion after finding debris on the ocean floor in a pattern ‘consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber’.
For many people, this description might evoke scenes from Hollywood films in which submarines gradually fill up with water until its crew tragically drown.
But the science of fluid pressure means the force with which seawater presses itself into structures rises to almost unimaginable levels at the depths which the Titan reached.
Bob Ballard, a member of the team that found the Titanic wreck in 1985, recently told ABC News: ‘I don’t think people can appreciate the amazing energy involved in the destructive process of an implosion.
‘It just takes out and literally shreds everything.’
Eric Fusil, an engineering professor and submarine specialist at the University of Adelaide, estimates the vessel would have collapsed in on itself in less than 40 milliseconds.
To an observer, this would look ‘nearly instantaneous’.
Experts say the quick release of energy during the implosion would likely produce intense heat and violent forces that would produce effects similar to an explosion right afterwards.
In one animated simulation shared widely on TikTok, a military submarine rapidly flattens out into a pringle-like shape before such an ‘explosion’ tears the remaining pieces into shrapnel.
But despite taking just a few seconds, the whole moment lasts several times longer than would have been the case in reality.
Another animation with a more realistic timeframe shows an unofficial 3D rendering of the Titan collapsing inwards before shattering into hundreds of pieces.
It could not immediately be confirmed whether the animators had any scientific background, so the videos should not be considered authoritative.
Investigators are continuing to look into exactly what happened to the Titan and why.
The unofficial videos show just how quick and devastating the ‘catastrophic’ collapse would have been.
