How does saturation diving work?
The Kursk sank in over 300 feet (91 m) of water. When a SCUBA diver makes a dive to that depth, he experiences the pressure of the water around him, which is approximately 10 times the pressure at sea level. At this pressure, the gasses that make up the air in his lungs, particularly nitrogen, dissolve into his blood and tissues. With the gasses in his blood and tissue, he can remain at that depth for a short period of time — less than 5 minutes. If he stays down longer than that, he runs the risk of developing decompression sickness , also known as “the bends,” when he surfaces, and he’ll have go through the decompression process to avoid getting sick. Because the Norwegian divers knew they would have to stay longer at that depth, and therefore would have to undergo decompression, they used a technique called saturation diving. Saturation diving is based on the principle that the pressure of the dissolved gas in the blood and tissues is the same as that of the gas in the lungs. Basic
