Pressure, Volume and Density

As you descent underwater you will be affected by the changes of pressure.

How underwater pressure affects divers

As you descent underwater you will be affected by the changes of pressure.

Underwater, pressure increases one bar/atm every 10 Mts/33 Feet, but as divers we can not ignore the atmosperic pressure having to add it as one bar/atm. That means that at 10 Mts/33 Feet the surrounding pressure is 2 bar/atm.

As we descent and pressure increases, any volume of air is affected by this pressure changes. The air volume will decrease as the surounding pressure increases.

At the same time, Density will be affected also by the pressure changes. Density will increase as pressure increases.

Knowing the effects of pressure

As divers, is important to understand these changes, since they will affect us directly while underwater.

As we descend, the increase of pressure will affect both our ears and lungs since they are air spaces in our body. The increase of pressure will also affect our air consumption, needing more air as we descend deeper since the volume of our lungs will keep decreasing proportionally to the number of bar or atmospheres at a given depth.

As we descend underwater, the pressure of our body`s ear spaces (ears and lungs) decrease so it is necessary to equalize them to the surrounding pressure underwater.

Keep your air spaces safe

To equalize our ears, we can pinch our nostrils and blow gently. we need to do this every 1 Meter /3 Feet as we descend, before feeling any discomfort. Should we feel any pain as we descend, we will need to ascend a few feet until discomfort disappears and then try equalizing our ears again.

To equalize our lungs, we simply keep breathing. In fact, breathing is the rule number one on scuba diving. Holding your breath while scuba diving may result in serious lung damage.