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Taryn MacQuarrie

@tearin_

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Why do saturation divers breathe helium? To answer that you first have to start with why we can’t use regular air. Gases under pressure react differently in our body and bloodstreams. Nitrogen for example loves to dissolve into the fatty sheaths surrounding your nerves. At 300ft like the video the pressure forces so much Nitrogen into your brain’s synapses that it disrupts electrical signaling. If you breathed nitrogen at this depth, you would lose coordination, your judgment would vanish, and you might even forget you’re underwater. Going even deeper than this nitrogen stops being "narcotic" and is effectively a general anesthetic. When choosing a new gas to replace nitrogen scientists looked around the periodic table and found a few surprising candidates. For example you could use hydrogen which is actually lighter and easier to breathe than helium but it has one major flaw it’s extremely explosive with oxygen... Although It has been used on extreme experimental dives, like the 1992 COMEX "Hydra 10" project to 701m (2,300ft) using a mix called Hydreliox. This was possible since the partial pressure requirement of oxygen was so low. In the early days, they even experimented with Neox, Argox, and Hydrox. All those gases had one thing in common.. they weren't helium. Besides its high cost, high thermal conductivity, and the "chipmunk voice" helium’s negatives are way easier to manage than the other options... like turning the chamber into a hydrogen bomb haha. At the depths we work, helium doesn't scramble your synapses like nitrogen does. Since helium is a tiny, light particle, it is still easy to breathe even when pressurized, unlike the "thick" density of nitrogen which would feel like breathing soup. Helium is also less soluble in the body, and being a Noble Gas means it does not react with anything, taking away the danger of a catastrophic chemical reaction. It’s expensive, it’s a "heat thief" that makes us freeze and it makes a 200lb diver sound like a cartoon character, but helium is the only reason we can work 300ft down with a clear head. Without it, the modern subsea industry simply wouldn't exist.

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Comments (5)

@bex_hornhart

@eycl22 bogos binted?

@poco.curante

@dhhr_reg You mean you don’t use pink goo.

@badmusic15 I feel it would be kind of zen once you got used to it.

Posted18 Apr 2026, 21:00

Pin added29 May 2026, 04:16

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