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Submarines and Dead Sea
Name: Brittany P.
Status: educator
Age: 20s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 9/22/2004
Question:
Is it possible for a submarine to dive in the Dead Sea?
Replies:
Yes, it can. A small research submarine will need to take on extra ballast
in order to submerge. Also, the maximum permissible diving depth is less
because of the greater density of the water above it. I don't know about
big submarines.
Bob Erck
Brittany,
Well, there are a couple of ways to answer your question, but the short
answer is yes, it is possible for a submarine to dive in the Dead Sea. In
fact, any object with a density greater than the density of the salt water
in the Dead Sea will sink into it.
The way that submarines operate is to have large tanks (called ballast
tanks) that are always open to sea water at the bottom and have valves that
open or close at the top. When the tanks are filled with air and the top
valves are closed, the submarine is buoyant and floats at the surface. When
the submarine is ready to dive, the valves at the top of the ballast tanks
are opened and air exits the top of the ballast tanks, water rushes in from
the bottom, and the submarine becomes less buoyant and sinks (dives) into
the water. Below the surface, the top valves of the ballast tanks are shut,
and high pressure air (stored in tanks on board the submarine) can be forced
into the ballast tanks (forcing the water out of the open valves at the
bottom) to make the submarine become more buoyant and come back to the
surface again.
The point is, water from the sea that the submarine is in is used to fill
its ballast tanks. So the relatively denser water (compared to most salt
water) of the Dead Sea would be used to fill the ballast tanks of a
submarine in the Dead Sea -- and the submarine would be able to sink (dive)
into the water.
Todd Clark, Office of Science
U.S. Department of Energy
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Update: June 2012
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