[masraum]

Originally Posted by jyl

A human has around 5-6 liters volume of air in lungs and other respiratory tract, skull (sinus, nose, mouth, ears, throat), intestines (where farts come from). That air volume will be (almost) instantly compressed to around 0.3% of its original volume, via water suddenly pressing in at around 5000 psi, as the body collapses down unevenly - instantly collapsing in air-containing areas but not in adjacent non-air-containing areas. The water pressure causing that collapse is uniform, but the body's resistance to pressure is not. I would guess that fat has least resistance, muscle a bit more, muscle with bones under it (ribcage?) a bit more, skull has more resistance, etc. Not sure of pre-existing orifices in skin will make any difference. Anyway, if pressure is uniform but resistance is not as body is instantly but unevenly collapsed, seems a recipe for a shredding.

I certainly wouldn't volunteer as an experiment subject. I'm sure it wouldn't be fun or pretty, but I suspect the physical, visible impact would be minimal. The human body is surprisingly resilient. My guess is that the ribs will resist compaction, so the stomach area will compress pushing some of the internal organs up towards the lungs. The throat/neck will probably also compact.

People get run over by vehicles directly across their torsos and come away with bruising and possibly some broken bones. 2.5 miles down exerts more pressure differently, than getting run over by a vehicle, of course.