Debris in the sea

[Segilla]

What effect does depth have on flotation? Obviously very heavy / dense objects settle on the bed of the ocean, light ones float; but are some objects likely to remain somewhere in between?

[Panic Button]

Surely whether an item floats or not has nothing to do with the depth of water underneath it.

[Segilla]

OK. Never mind about depth. Do items either float on top or drop to the bottom?

[deggers316]

actually depending on the depth of water hence density human corpses float at a certain depth

[Mortartube]

I would imagine that salinity would also affect this. If the sea had a massive tropical storm over it depositing a great deal of fresh water locally, I would think this would affect the flotation depth of certain objects. Just a thought.

[ACtheTROLL]

flotation has 2 components
displacement and density - which are in effect the same thing

a boat will float on the surface - from displacement - but will sink due to it's density

a lava lamp works because two liquids of different densities allows one to float on the other

see the cbbies advert on layer flotation - water honey and veg oil

a body will float to a depth of 32M and then the water pressure compresses the air sufficiently to mke it sink.

in shallow water when the bacteria creates gas - it comes back up ... and then sinks again
in deep water - it stays down

[ACtheTROLL]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/nina/make/everyd rop.shtml