<object width="464" height="392"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.break.com/NDkzMDAw"></param><embed src="http://embed.break.com/NDkzMDAw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="464" height="392"></embed></object><br><font size=1><a href="http://www.break.com/index/tanker-implodes.html">Tanker Implodes</a> - Watch more <a href="http://www.break.com/">free videos</a></font> Crazy stuff...explanation anyone?
There was a vacuum inside the tanker and it was crushed by atmospheric pressure. Why was there a vacuum inside the tanker? Who knows... perhaps it was steam cleaned and then cooled off. Gas laws ftw! Also, this is what happens if a submarine goes too deep. Crunch!
Atmospheric pressure is actually significant; we just live with it every day so don't even notice or think of it. Our bodies are calibrated for it and have an outward pressure to compensate. That's my understanding at least. I think atmospheric pressure at the earth's surface is 100,000 Newtons per square meter. So that's a number of metric tons of weight equivalent acting on each square meter of surface area. So that's what crushed the tanker in that video, as others have suggested. If an astronaut was suddenly floating free in space, there are all kinds of reasons he/she would die, but basically exploding from outward pressure would be a spectacular one. (i.e. the opposite effect of this tanker.)
